Sahle Selassie, the King of the Shewa (Ethiopia), signs a friendship treaty with France. He encourages foreigners to settle in his country, and offers incentives. Several Europeans take up his offer, including the first U.S. citizen to reside in East Africa.
The first ship carrying indentured servants to Natal Colony, South Africa, arrives from Madras, India. The men, women and even children provide cheap and easily exploited labour for sugar plantations. The immigrants introduce a new demographic group into South Africa, and form the nucleus of Natal’s Indian community.
After Egyptian forces seize Eritrea, they are attacked and defeated by Ethiopian forces, ending Egypt’s attempted invasion of Ethiopia. Vastly outnumbered, Egypt loses 2,000 soldiers at the Battle of Gundet.
The Catholic Church’s Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam is established in German East Africa (Tanzania) when Pope Leo XIII creates the Apostolic Prefecture of Southern Zanguebar.
The first airplane flight from London to Cape Town departs Croydon Aerodrome in England. The flight path will take the de Havilland airplane across the Mediterranean to Cairo, then south along the Nile River into Central Africa, and then through Southern Africa. After flying over Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the trip will end in Cape Town after two months and one day.
Four days after Belgian colonial authorities depose his father, Yuhi V, as Umwami (king) of Rwanda in Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda and Burundi), his 20 year-old son Rudahigwa is installed as the new Umwami, Mutara III. Groomed in secret for two years and converted to Catholicism (which his father refused to do), Mutara III, standing 2.1 metres, is the tallest African leader in history.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is founded. UNESCO will provide vital assistance to African countries’ educational programmes, and help preserve historic, cultural and natural treasures by designating these as World Heritage Sites.
Nigerian sculptor Ben Enwonwu presents to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II the statue of herself that she commissioned from him. The queen has modeled for the statue at 12 sittings at Buckingham Palace, where a studio was made for Enwonwu, and elsewhere in London. She will gift the statue to Nigeria in 1959.
One month after achieving independence, Nigeria has its first Nigerian as head of government. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, appointed by parliament, assumes office as Governor-General. The British colonial post will be retired when he becomes Prime Minister and Nigeria becomes a republic in 1961. For today, he is as amused as other Nigerians when he must wear the Governor-General’s imperial uniform.
South African government retires the Separate Amenities Act, which enforced segregation in public facilities. This allows for the racial integration of restaurants, theatres, public restrooms and transportation facilities. The end of “petty apartheid” measures begins the dismantling of apartheid.
With the release today of Casino Royale, the rebooted James Bond 007 spy movie franchise becomes topical with a story involving the financing by the fictitious super crime organisation Spectre of the Ugandan terror group, Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. (pic: the film’s opening scene. Set in Madagascar, it was actually filmed in the Bahamas)
“The father of Nigerian nationalism,” in Zungeru, Nigeria. He was the first president of the First Nigerian Republic from 1963 until a military coup d’état in 1966. He escaped assassination by being out of the country at the time.
Nigerian novelist, in Ogidi, Nigeria. His first novel, in 1958, Things Fall Apart is a landmark in modern African literature, and is taught in schools throughout Africa and overseas. He is considered one of the most influential writers never to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Second president of Seychelles (1977-2004), in Victoria, Crown Colony of Seychelles. Although a 1981 attempted coup d’état was meant by foreign mercenaries to kill him, he accepted US$3 million from South Africa for the repatriation of the mercenaries following their trials and convictions. (pic: with Mozambique President Samora Machel)
