Comedies, drama and choral performances keep audiences entertained at the new Severan theatre in the Roman town of Sabratha on the Mediterranean coast of what will become Libya. The architecturally-elaborate amphitheater will survive time to be one of the best preserved Roman theatres in the 21st century.
Cairo’s major hotels announce automobile tours of Egyptian antiquities, for the benefit of business people and travelers who have little time for sightseeing. The motorcar is revolutionising tourism throughout Africa, by making attracts easier to visit. However, poor or nonexistent roads remain a challenge.
Tanganyika railroad authorities provide a bus service for passengers needing to travel between the end of the Tanga Railway at Arusha and Nairobi, where the Kenya & Uganda Railway departs for Mombasa. At £3, the bumpy ride in the non-air conditioned wood-panel “motor coach” is not cheap (equal to £262 in 2023), but the trip goes through game parks and offers a view of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Egypt enters the Space Age by launching its first rocket, from the Al Kahir launch site.
Mauritania and Morocco are each given portions of Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara) in the Madrid Accords, which allows Spain to pull out of the territory. One month before, the International Court of Justice ruled that neither Mauritania nor Morocco has a claim on the territory, and it is up to the Saharawi people to determine their political future. The Saharawi are completely excluded from the Madrid negotiations and treaty.
Having invaded Tanzania, Uganda dictator Idi Amin learns that his generals have not prepared for a Tanzanian counter-offensive. Instead, like their Ugandan troops, they are busy looting occupied Tanzanian territory. Also fearing the Soviet Union might ship weapons to Tanzania, Amin bluffs by saying Ugandan forces have withdrawn from Tanzania. Choosing to believe Amin’s lie, the Organisation of African Unity congratulates itself on its mediation efforts. Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere and his generals are not fooled, and continue to pursue the war.
A bloodless coup in Guinea-Bissau overthrows President Luis Cabral (pic: right, with his half-brother Amílcar Cabral, the Guinea-Bissau revolutionary assassinated in 1973), and ends unification plans with Cabo Verde, another former Portuguese colony and “sister country.” Both nations have their unification plans written into their constitutions, share a national anthem and have similar-looking flags. Racial tension between mainland black Guinea Bissauans and mulatto Cabo Verdeans allegedly prompted the end of Cabral, who was born in Cabo Verde.
British and US law enforcement authorities indict two Libyan intelligence officers for the 1988 bombing of Pan-Am passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people, mostly Americans.
On his only foreign trip during his eight-month term in office, which he served between the Mbeki and Zuma presidential administrations, South Africa President Kgalema Motlanthe (pic: with South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel) attends the G-20 Economic Summit, representing South Africa.
Perhaps Africa’s largest crowd to see a football game assembles at Cairo International Stadium: more than 120,000 spectators.
Puntland, an autonomous state within the Somalia Federation since 1998, registers political parties in preparation for its first multi-party elections, scheduled for 2014. President Abdirahman Farole announces his own political party, which is named Horseed - Somali for “pioneer.”
As popular pressure rises to unseat President Robert Mugabe, the army moves into Harare.
Wind brings scorpion deaths to Egypt. 3 people die and nearly 500 are hospitalised when a freak storm blows thousands of black scorpions from the desert into Aswan, where they came into buildings and cars, and injected people with venom.
The Founder of Nigerian nationalism, in Lagos Colony. An architect and land surveyor, he became critical of British governance and became one of Nigeria's first political activists against colonial rule. He founded a newspaper and Nigeria’s first political party to advance his views, and successfully sued Britain to compensate Yoruba chiefs for land confiscated for a railway.
Egyptian politician and diplomat, in Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt. He was the first Secretary-General of the U.N. to come from Africa (1992-1996).
South African human rights lawyer, in Vailitsi, Greece. Representing anti-apartheid struggle leader Nelson Mandela (in pic, right), he saved his client from a death penalty in the Rivonia Trial. He represented other anti-apartheid activists like Trevor Huddleston, and the families of South Africans killed by the apartheid state.
