After eight British wars of conquest against an increasingly-desperate Xhosa nation of South Africa, the Xhosa ancestors are to return today in fulfilment of a prediction by a 16 year-old prophetess Nongqawuse (pic: right). They will drive Europeans into the sea, provide a bounty of food and clothing, make the elderly youthful again and begin a golden age. As a condition for their arrival, all Xhosa crops and cattle have been destroyed according to the prophetess’ decree. By day’s end, the prophet is not fulfilled. Mass starvation will begin, and the Xhosa people will be decimated.

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The Constitution of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR) of the South African Republic settled by the Boers, specifies, "Potchefstroom (pic), located on the Mooi River, is to be the capital of the Republic and Pretoria the seat of government.” The new country’s land has been seized from indigenous South African peoples.

The sacking of Benin City is in full fury as British colonial forces avenge the death of British Nigeria Acting Council General James Philips, whose raiding party was ambushed before he could complete his mission of murdering the Oba of the Kingdom of Benin. Britain has long disliked Benin’s survival as an independent kingdom during the European takeover of Africa, and uses Philip’s death as an excuse to attack the city. In days, a thousand year-old African civilisation is destroyed and looted. Residents of Benin villages are massacred, but they have commit horrors of their own as they make hundreds of human sacrifices during the chaos of the British invasion. A Reuters journalist finds disemboweled women still alive, sacrificed as an appeal for protection against the invaders.

The opening of the groundbreaking New York musical on Broadway In Dahomey, a satire on the “back to Africa” movement set in a fictionalised kingdom named after an actual West Africa country. The first Broadway show created by African-Americans, the comedy duo Bert Williams (pic: right) and George Walker (pic: centre left), the ragtime musical will be a smash hit, running two months in New York and touring four years in the U.S. and U.K.

The Côte d’Ivoire and Upper Volta representative to the French legislature, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, proposes reforms in French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa to allow more African representation in governance. He also advises the creation of local assemblies to give Africans practice in governing when their countries achieve independence. These policies will be adopted in the 1950s.

Dedan Kimathi (pic), spiritual and military leader of Kenya’s Mau Mau Uprising against British colonialists, is hanged by the British for leading the rebellion. He will be officially recognised as a Kenyan national hero in the 21st century. His grave will be discovered in 2019. His statue erected by government will be dedicated in 2006. The British government, agreeing to pay compensation to 5,000 Kenyans tortured by British forces during the uprising, in 2015 will dedicate a statue to the Mau Mau in Nairobi.

The Gambia achieves national independence, from Britain. The first President of The Gambia is Dawda Jawara (pic). The capital is Banjul. The population is 405,258.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front is formed. The nationalist paramilitary group seeks autonomy for the Tigray people to end their marginalisation within Ethiopia.

A military coup d’état removes Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja (pic), who has been serving since 1999. The military junta that takes over begins a transition to democracy. Elections will be held in April 2011.

The U.N. Security Council sends 3,000 U.N. Peacekeepers to Central African Republic to assist 6,000 African Union and 2,000 French troops. Christian versus Muslim violence is seeing civilians killed in large numbers. Of the country’s 436 mosques, 417 have been destroyed during the civil war.

In Nigeria, the African Development Bank offers US$500 million financing to special "agro-industrialised" processing zones in all four geographic quadrants of the country, and provides loans to farmers to boost agricultural production.