Financed by Britain’s Royal Geographic Society for the purpose of mapping Central Africa, the Burton and Speke Expedition arrives at Lake Tanganyika. Burton is awed by the size of the lake. Speke, temporarily blinded by illness, sees nothing. Recovering, Speke will journey alone north to find the source of the Nile River, the goal of the Geographic Society mission, while Burton heads west.
Ali bin Said begins his three-year rule as Sultan of Zanzibar. Five months from now, in July 1890, Britain and German will sign an agreement making Zanzibar a British protectorate. They will do this without consulting Said.
The first aviation competition/display held in Africa, the Grande Semaine d'Aviation d'Egypt, ends in Heliopolis near Cairo. The landing strip used will be converted into Egypt’s and Africa’s first aerodrome (airport). The civilian airport will be taken over by the British Royal Flying Corps during World War I, and in 2022 it will have become the Egyptian Air Force’s Almaza Air Base.
In the morning, Egypt’s King Farouk I (pic: left) confers with U.S. President Franklyn Roosevelt (pic: right) aboard the U.S. Navy ship Quincy, docked at Suez. In the afternoon, Roosevelt meets with Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie. Discussions involve the immediate crisis of World War II, and plans for the post-war international landscape.
In a strong rebuke to Africa’s independence movement, voters in France approve a constitution that curtails the political rights of Africans in France’s African colonies; reduces the number of African representatives in the French legislature from 30 to 24, reduces the number of Africans who can vote, and reaffirms French colonial governors’ powers to rule Africans’ affairs by decree.
France explodes its first nuclear weapon, with Africa as the test site. The Saharan Military Experiments Centre at the Reganne Oasis in the Sahara Desert in French Algeria is used to explode four devices. International protests are mounted against the tests.
The death of Democratic Republic of Congo independence icon and first prime minister Patrice Lumumba, which occurred on 17 January and has been the subject of rumours, is officially announced on the radio of the breakaway Katanga state, which is held by secessionist rebels. The international community and world leaders (pic: U.S. President John Kennedy the moment he is informed of Lumumba’s death) are shocked. The U.N. is galvanised into supporting the Kinshasa government in the Congolese Civil War.
Tanzania begins its counter-offensive against Uganda, after expelling all Ugandan forces that invaded its territory in October 1978. Tanzanian troops seize a Ugandan airstrip along the border.
Angolan and South African officials meet for negotiations for the first time since South Africa’s apartheid regime began incursions into Angola, in talks brokered by the U.S. South Africa invaded Angola in pursuit of Namibian independence fighters who want to end South Africa's occupation of South West Africa (Namibia).
Robert Ouko, Kenya’s respected Foreign Minister, is murdered in one of President Daniel arap Moi's official residences. This will be determined in the 2005 report of an official parliamentary probe that will call for investigations into the mysterious deaths of key witnesses, and note, "The perceived foreign support of Dr Ouko to ascend to the presidency to weed out corruption and human rights abuses was perceived by the leadership as a threat to the presidency and that this could be linked to his death."
South Africa’s Constitutional Court, the newly democratised country’s highest court, is inaugurated, in Johannesburg. Arthur Chaskalson is President.
The 22nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations is the first to be hosted by two countries: Nigeria and Tunisia. Cameroon wins its third Cup championship.
Tunisia’s first private television channel, Hannibal TV, starts broadcasting, via satellite.
Rwanda hosts 2,000 coffee growers at Kigali’s African Fine Coffees Conference. Rwandan coffees have been winning international awards in the specialty coffee categories. Specialty coffees are now 58% of the country’s coffee production.
Egyptian painter and Egyptologist, in Alexandria, Egypt. He balanced his work as an artist – mounting several exhibits of his paintings throughout the world and organising artistic events for African artists in Nigeria and Senegal - with his work documenting and then presenting Egyptian antiquities in major shows in Paris, Tokyo and elsewhere.
Second president of Cameroon, who has ruled as an aloof authoritarian since 1983 to the present. Consistently re-elected in elections lacking credibility, he has resisted the African governance trend toward democracy, and prefers to spend his time in Switzerland.
Nigerian Air Force leader, in Doko, Niger State, British Nigeria. Joining the Nigeria Air Force as one of the first Nigerian cadets, when training was done in Ethiopia, he rose through the ranks and became the first African to head that military branch as Chief of the Air Staff.
Nigerian microbiologist and social entrepreneur, in Illorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. A founder of Vicfold Recyclers, she teamed an environmental crusade with youth employment and women’s empowerment by tackling Nigeria’s massive waste problem: paying residents for recyclable trash, which is sorted by a corps of women and processed into new products by youth trained in new job skills.
