Occupying Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French army across the Sinai in search of the mountains of Moses. Departing from Suez, he contemplates the possibility of a canal for shipping at that location.

The Aro people of Igboland (Nigeria) suffer the destruction of their capital Arochukwu during the Anglo-Aro War. British troops. make it a point of destroying the shrine of the Ibini Ukpabi, the Aro’s spiritual and judicial leader, whose influence is significant. Okoro Toti and other Aro leaders are arrested, tried and hanged. The end of the war does not change the Igbo people’s opposition to British colonial occupation. Aro warriors will engage in guerilla war against colonialists, and 30 years of uprisings will follow. (pic: Aro warrior canoe)

The Islamic Art Museum opens in Cairo. Considered one of the world’s great museums, it houses artwork and cultural objects from all ages and in all materials from around the Islamic world.

The first arrests are made of Asians in South Africa who refuse to register under the Asiatic Registration Law (the Black Act). Mohandas Gandhi leads a defiance campaign against the law, which requires all Asians to be fingerprinted on documents they must carry at all times. In one month, 2,000 people will be arrested.

The Rand Rebellion begins in South Africa’s Witwatersrand Region. The uprising by armed white miners is against decreased wages and the hiring of black labour. Strikers take over the towns of Benoni and Brakpan, and the Johannesburg suburbs of Fordsburg and Jeppe.

French Somaliland’s governance by France’s Vichy government, installed by the Nazis when Germany conquered France, ends with the implementation of an agreement to end the British blockade of the county. Blocking food imports, the blockade has caused famine. The Free French take control of Somaliland, and appoint a new governor.

Tourists flock back to see the Zambezi River waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya and go on safari in the rush of international goodwill for the new nation of Zimbabwe. Tourists are comforted by the end of a decade of civil war that saw visitor numbers drop from 350,000 in 1970 to 79,000 in 1979. This year, 238,000 tourist arrived, and will become 314,000 next year (1981).

Skol Breweries begins operations in Rwanda, taking over the factory of the private local brewery, Brasserie de Mille Collines. Production of beer and mineral and sparkling waters will go from 80,000 hectoliters the first year to 500,000 hectoliters in 2019, with 2025 production projected to reach one million hl.

Morocco's Palais Ronsard, the stylish restaurant in Marrakech, wins the Prix Versailles award from U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the International Union of Architects award for "World's Most Beautiful Restaurant."