After restructuring, British West Africa is re-established with the colonial administrative capital placed in Freetown. The British colonial Governor-in-Chief oversees an area that will become The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria. The British West African Pound is the common currency.
The Braamfontein Explosion kills 70 in South Africa when a small utility locomotive collides with a train loaded with dynamite. The collision is one of the biggest man-made non-nuclear explosions in history.
As British forces carry out their demolition of Benin City, photographers capture the magnificent stone pyramids and the city’s fabled walls before they are torn down. These photos will stand as evidence of the wanton destruction of African art and architecture.
The Pan-African Movement is officially launched with the opening of the Pan African Congress, in Paris. Organised by American civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois (in pic seated in centre) and Ida Gibbs Hunt. Because one of the congress' demands will be self-rule for Europe's African colonies, British and French authorities block travel for delegates from their African colonies. However, 57 delegates manage to assemble from 15 countries.
A report by the Regio Governo della Somalia Italiana (Regional Governor of Italian Somalia) shows the thriving economy of the Majeerteen Sultanate prior to Italy’s invasion and colonisation of the country in 1925. This past year, the country exported more than one million Indian Rupees of commodities – 60% of this being the spice frankincense, 20% being fish products and the rest being livestock.
The bitterness of South Africa’s Afrikaner people a half-century after their loss in the Anglo-Boer War is evident in a statement from the anti-British Afrikaner organisation Ossewa Brandwag, which complains about British King George VI’s visit to South Africa: “In the name of this monarchy, 27,000 Boer women and children were murdered for the sake of gold.” The statement makes no mention of the Pedi, Zulu and other peoples murdered by the Boer Republics to acquire their lands' gold.
The first four Toyota Land Cruisers sold in Africa arrive in Nigeria. The rugged four-wheel drive vehicles will become a popular way to travel rugged African terrain, and will become a common sight at game parks, nature reserve and farms.
BBC launches two new radio services in Nigeria - in Igbo, the language of author Chinua Achebe, and Yoruba, playwright Wole Soyinka's language. BBC's Nigeria Pidgin language service was launched in April 2017.
Nature conservationist in Tanzania, in Taunton, England. A professional hunter who grew respectful of the big game he was pursuing, he retired from hunting in 1933 to join the Tanganyika Game Department. In 1950, he became the first Warden of Serengeti National Park.
Egyptian women’s rights activist, in Assuit, Egypt. Beginning as a political activist seeking an end to British rule in Egypt, she evolved toward advocacy for gender equality. She founded the Egyptian Feminist Union in 1923 to promote education for Egyptian women and to work for equal rights.
1901 -- Mohamed Naguib, first president of Egypt (1953-1954), in Khartoum, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. As one of the generals who led the 1952 Revolution that overthrew the monarchy of King Farouk, he was placed in the presidency of the new Republic of Egypt by the revolution’s leader, Gamal Nasser. After a brief power struggle with Nasser, he resigned, and was placed under informal house arrest by Nasser until 1972. He was then honoured as an elder statesman.
Fourth President of Zambia (2008-2011), in Miko, Southern Rhodesia. He devoted his three years in office to Zambia’s economic development, but was accused of corruption and misuse of authority, and had his presidential immunity removed in 2013.
