The Invasion of Algiers ordered by Spain’s King Charles III ends in spectacular failure for the Europeans. 20,000 Italian and Spanish troops in 74 warships and 230 transport ships sail into a trap set by Algerian defenders under Baba Mohammed ben-Osman, and lose a quarter of their force. The Algerian casualties are light.
The use of the medicine quinine is now recognised as so essential that without it Britain would have to abandon its West African colonies due to malaria deaths. British doctor Alexander Bryson writes in his Report on the Climate and Principle Diseases of the African Station: “So general has the use of quinine now become, that there is hardly any part of Western Africa, where there are resident Europeans, in whose houses it is not to be found; it is in fact considered to be one of the necessaries of life, where life is of all things the most uncertain.”
As World War I nears its end, the No. 26 Squadron RFC - South African pilots fighting with the British against German East Africa – returns to Cape Town and is disbanded. About 3,000 South African pilots remain in Europe, flying with the British. By the end of the war, 260 will have died in combat. The South Africans are noted for their flying skills, and 46 become flying aces
The first dance band of Gold Coast (Ghana), the Jazz Kings (pic), formed after World War I, along with the newer bands the Cape Coast Sugar Babies and Sekondi Nanshamang are introducing Western jazz influences to the local Highlife jazz style that originated in the late 19th Century. The bands perform for Ghana’s aristocracy, and a high entrance price and dress code (tuxedoes for men, gowns for women) keep the audience elite and give rise to the music’s name Highlife.
Motion pictures come to Italian Eritrea with the opening of the Cinema Odeon in Asmara, the conversion of the Asmara Opera, built in in 1918, into a dual-use theatre, and the soon to open Cinema Impero. In 2017, UNESCO will declare these and other buildings designed in Italian Art Deco as a World Heritage Site.
The Café Zanzibar opens on Times Square in New York, replacing The Cotton Club as America’s showcase for black talent. Cotton Club bandleader Cab Calloway is the headliner for the Zanzibar Club, which unlike the Cotton Club allows black people inside. The Cotton Club recreated a Southern U.S. plantation where Africans were enslaved. The Zanzibar Club presents a fantasy of exotic African sensuality and music that is modern and “swinging.”
South Africa’s Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949 goes into effect. One of the laws of the new apartheid government, the act bans marriage between whites and other races.
At the 1964 Commonwealth Prime Minister’s Conference, Kenya Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta is assaulted by British neo-Nazi Martin Weber. In Kenya, white Kenyans have come to accept his government. However, Europe’s far right groups continue to oppose the end of colonialism.
The four month reign begins of Burundi’s last king, Ntare V, who will be formally installed at age 19 on 3 September. He will be overthrown two months later, in November, in a coup d’état that will replace the monarchy with military rule.
A movie in the Igbo language, Living in Bondage, directed by Obi Rapu, revolutionises the Nigerian film industry by being released direct to home video, bypassing cinema theatres. This new way of distributing films by selling directly to the public creates a boom in production at what will soon be called Nollywood.
Sudan’s deadliest aviation disaster occurs when a Sudan Airways passenger jet loses power after an engine fails 15 minutes after takeoff from Port Sudan. The plane returns to the airport, misses the runway, and hits the ground 5 km away, killing all 117 people on board.
Angola's TAAG Angolan Airlines sets a record for transporting bulk cargo by air. TAAG flies 210 tonnes of project cargo to Brazil. 32 tonnes are flown per flight on Boeing 777 aircraft.
Liberia’s vice president and Supreme Court justice, in Kentucky, U.S. Born enslaved, he was freed and educated by his former slave owner, who sent him to Liberia to assess the work of the American Colonization Society. Upon his return, he was ordained a Presbyterian minister before immigrating to Liberia for good.
Zimbabwean musician, Mujumi Village, Mhondoro, Southern Rhodesia. When she turned 20, she mastered the Shona people’s traditional instrument the mbira dzavagdzimu, although few if any other women played the instrument. When recording companies were not interested in mbira music, she formed her own record company. She traveled internationally, introducing the mbira to concert audiences, singing as she played. She recorded 12 albums between 1987 and 2021.
