German missionary Carl Hugo Hahn, who is an expert on the Herero people of German South West Africa (Namibia) and has been sent by the governor of Cape Colony, South Africa, to negotiate an end to the Herero rebellion against German colonial rule, meets with Samuel Maharero, the Paramount Chief of the Herero. Only partial success is achieved. To end further conflict, Hahn will urge Britain to assume control of the territory, as a protectorate. This will not be done for 30 years, during World War I. Meanwhile, Germany will commit genocide against the Herero in 1904. (Pic: the Hahn mission at Ovamboland)

An air rescue begins for guests stranded at the Victoria Falls Hotel in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) after a railroad strike that began yesterday (16 February) combine with flooded roads and a raging Zambezi river to completely cut off the Mosi-oa-Tunya waterfalls. For the airlift, the Aircraft Operating Company, which is doing an aerial survey of the Upper Zambezi, uses planes specially built to take off and land on water.

The British Royal family - King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret - arrive in Cape Town for the start of their 3-month tour of Southern Africa. They will travel 7,000 km, visit more than 400 towns and speak to 25,000 people, traveling in a specially-designed train. At one stop, 15 year-old future superstar Miriam Makeba makes her public singing debut performing a song written by her teacher. To avoid punishment, the song What a Hard Life for a Black Man is in the isiXhosa language that is not understood by the royal family or South African white authorities.

Alarmed by the anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising in British Kenya, the cabinet of the British government approves mass detentions and forced labour for the rebellion’s participants and sympathisers. The result will be the first concentration camps for Africans since Britain built them for Boer and black civilians during the Anglo-Boer War in 1900.

Up to 50 people die at the Zamalek Stadium Disaster in Cairo, Egypt; crushed by falling walls and a stampede when 80,000 fans attempt to enter a stadium that has a capacity of 40,000.

The first Francophone Summit organised by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie is held in Paris. All of Africa’s French-speaking countries attend, drawn by a promise by French President François Mitterrand (in pic with Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara on left) that France is canceling all debts owed to it by 34 African countries.

Benin voters elect Nicéphore Soglo (pic) as President in Benin’s first free multi-party elections. President Mathieu Kérékou becomes the first mainland African head of state to lose an election and peacefully transfer power to a successor.

The 17 February Revolution in Libya marks the beginning of the First Libyan Civil War, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that will succeed in ousting his government three days after capturing and killing Gaddafi on 20 October 2011.