In the Ife kingdom of what will become Nigeria, new heights of artistry are achieved by smiths working with copper who cast a realistic, half-life-size statue of a seated man. He will later be called the Tada figure.

Germany surrenders its African colony Togoland to British and French forces during World War I. (pic: Togolese colonial police)

South African police fire into a crowd protesting evictions of residents participating in a mass action rent boycott at White City, South Africa. At least 25 black South Africans are killed.

Egypt and Britain settle their differences, including establishing a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops in Egypt (except for those guarding the Suez Canal, pic), with the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. The Arab Socialist Party that seeks Egypt’s complete independence from Britain does not support the treaty.

U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (pic: greeting soldiers) on the first American Presidential trip to Africa enjoys a two-day informal tour of Liberia with Liberian President Edwin Barclay (pic: driving car), including a visit to a rubber plantation. After the conquest of Singapore and Malaysia by Japan cuts off main sources of rubber during World War II, Liberia’s rubber production became essential to the U.S. war effort.

The first major battle is fought in the South African Border War in South West Africa (Namibia). The conflict will also be called the Namibian War of Independence and the Angolan Bush war. South African paratroops and paramilitary police (pic) attack a camp in the northern part of the country belonging to insurgents seeking an end to South Africa’s control over the country. Two insurgents are killed.

Portugal agrees to Independence for Guinea-Bissau and to removing all troops. The power of governance will be given to the liberation movement the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC).

The Victoria Falls Conference takes place on a railway car parked in the middle of Victoria Falls Bridge on the border between Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Zambia. Zambia President Kenneth Kaunda and South African Prime Minister B.J. Vorster act as mediators as Ian Smith, head of Rhodesia’s white minority government, meets with Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo of the liberation party the Patriotic Front to find a peaceful solution to the country’s civil war, and to begin a transition to democracy.

South Africa’s National Empowerment Consortium, tasked with rectifying decades of economic discrimination against black South Africans under apartheid, makes a deal with the giant mining company Anglo-America. Shares in Johnnies Industrial Corporation are sold by Anglo-America to the Consortium to help transfer economic opportunities to the black community.

U.S. President Bill Clinton begins a three-day State Visit to Nigeria. He meets with Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo, and addresses the National Assembly.

The Uganda government signs a peace accord with the Lord’s Resistance Army of Joseph Kony (pic: seated centre). The terrorists agree to leave Uganda for camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Following a period of inactivity, the LRA between 2010 and 2011 will kill 3,900 people, abduct 5,500 others and through its terror campaign create 400,000 refuges in DRC, Central African Republic and South Sudan.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, whose father is Kenyan, receives a thunderous “rock star” welcome in Nairobi, Kenya, his first stop on a four African nation tour to raise awareness of AIDS. He warns that ethnic identity is again becoming a driving force in African politics. (pic: Obama with Kenya Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai)

Kenyan scientists successful harvest white rhino eggs from the last two remaining white rhino females. The sperm of the last male was taken before his death, and will be used to inseminate eggs that will be implanted in a surrogate rhino mother. This is the last chance to save the species.