A woman of the !Xam people (the ! represents a tongue click), an off-shoot of the San, named ǃKweiten-ta-ǁKen, arrives in Cape Town to be interviewed by noted linguist and pioneer chronicler of African languages, William Bleek. Her contributions ensure the recording and preservation of !Xam customs and folklore for posterity.
The first South African military aircraft pilot receives his qualifications, as World War I looms and British South Africa faces a German foe in South West Africa (Namibia).
Rioting erupts in the Sierra Leone town of Bandejuma against British colonial rule. Police arrest 101 people to stand trial, and beat about 200 others. (pic: Freetown in 1951)
Elizabeth II is crowned queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth countries Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon. Accordingly, the only African Commonwealth country, South Africa, participates in the Coronation, parading the standard of South Africa. However, the heads of state of several African countries attended as guests. (Pic: Paramount Chief Kgari Sechele II of Bechuanaland , Paramount King Sobhuza II of Swaziland and King Moshoeshoe II of Basutoland.)
After a show-trial, Democratic Republic of Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko executes his former vice president and three cabinet ministers with public hangings at the Great Public Square of Leopoldville.
The Federation of Cameroon, in which the Francophone east of the country (formerly French Cameroon) and the Anglophone western part of the country (formerly British Cameroon) have separate governments, is abolished by President Ahmadou Ahidjo. He establishes himself has head of the United Republic of Cameroon.
Senegal’s President Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected to the Académie Française. He is the first African to join the Académie.
The Red Sea Summit is held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Attending with Egypt President Hosni Mubarak and Middle-East leaders is U.S. President George Bush.
The 100th anniversary commemoration of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, the landmark 1910 conference which transitioned African missionary work from the colonial into the modern era, is held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Social media is used to facilitate simultaneous conferences in Boston, USA, Tokyo, Japan and Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss 21st century evangelical strategies.
The Levy Mwanawasa Stadium is opened in Lusaka, Zamibia. Named after Zambia’s third president, the national stadium seats 50,000.
Sierra Leonean educator, author and cultural activist, in Freetown, British Sierra Leone. Crusading for the rights of her countrymen and women, she highlighted the need to honour local culture against the colonial onslaught of Western imperialism in the late 19th through the 20th century. Pursuing her cause of cultural nationalism, she set up a Girl’s Vocational and Trading School in Freetown in 1923, and spoke internationally on the importance of African women in national development.
prominent Sudanese writer and scholar, in Al-Damar, Anglo-Egyptian Continuum (Sudan). His scholastic work in Sudanese literature and the Arabic language was accompanied by poetry, plays and essays on African culture. He was president of the University of Khartoum, and for 35 years interpreted the Qur’an on radio broadcasts.
