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1749

Nzima Antonius Wilhelm Amo returns to his West African Nkubeam people after 40 years in Germany, where he has become one of the most respected Enlightenment Philosophers of the age. However, liberal thinking has become endangered as conservative forces seize Germany, and today Amo departs Rotterdam for the Gold Coast (Ghana). Brought to Europe by the Dutch West Indian Company as an enslaved four year-old, he was given to Duke Ludwig von Wolfenbüttel. He was the first African to attend a European university, the University of Helmstedt.  After further study, including medicine and theology, and mastering six languages, he became a professor at the Universities of Halle and Jena. He has produced what are considered two major philosophical works. In On the Absence of Sensation in the Human Mind and its Presence in our Organic and Living Body, he championed reason, knowledge and science over spiritualism.

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1749

1880

The First Anglo-Boer War in South Africa begins when 262 British soldiers and six officers marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria are attacked by 250 Boer Commandos, and suffer 156 casualties.

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1880

1885

With the German fleet off shore aiming cannon at his palace, the Sultan of Zanzibar, Sultan Barghash bin Said, signs a “treaty of friendship” that gives Germany the mainland portion of his sultanate, which will become Tanganyika.

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1885

1889

The British South Africa Company is established. The company will lay claim to the mineral rights of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), and will build railroads and administer both territories. Cecil Rhodes (centre in photo with company directors) is the company founder.

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1889

1891

Belgian officers try to arrest Msiri, the sadistic ruler of the Yeke Kingdom in Katanga (Democratic Republic of Congo), but not for his crimes against humanity. (He throws his rivals naked into huts with starving dogs.) Rather, he must be apprehended for refusing to allow King Leopold II’s Congo Free State company to take over the territory. When Msiri resists, he is shot dead. He is decapitated, in the same way he would cut off the heads of both his enemies and family members alike.

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1891

1921

King Sobhuza II is installed as Swaziland’s (Eswatini) Ingwenyama (traditional ruler), within the British Protectorate of Swaziland. The British recognise him as the Paramount Chief. He will assume full governing power at national independence in 1968.

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1921

1925

On its 16-month journey to be the first to travel by automobile from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt, the Court Treatt Expedition arrives at Al-Ubayyid, Sudan. En route, hundreds of local residents have assisted by dragging the two Crossley trucks through swamps and muddy plains.

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1925

1934

Africa’s first passenger aircraft fatalities occur when a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Douglas DC-2 airplane departs Cairo, Egypt and crashes in a rainstorm in Iraq, killing all seven people on board.

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1934

1935

One of Africa’s iconic bridges, the Birchenough Bridge, opens in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), spanning the Sabe River. At 329-metres in length, it is the world’s third longest single-arch suspension bridge.

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1935

1975

Fearing the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s covert aid to rebel groups in Angola will lead to a military engagement similar to the disastrous U.S. War in Vietnam, and acknowledging the U.S. has no strategic interest in Angola, the U.S. Congress passes the Clark Amendment. The law bans assistance to Angola’s anti-Communist militants (pic).

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1975

1991

The Convention for a Democratic South Africa begins in Kempton Park, to dismantle the apartheid state and create a non-racial government.

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1991

1999

Africa tourism has grown faster than the global rate: 7.5% annual tourism growth vs.5.3% annual growth globally. However, Africa’s share of the world tourism trade is miniscule: only 4% of the world’s travelers visited Africa this year. (pic: tourists enjoy Namibia's scenic mountains)

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1999

2006

Egypt hosts the Africa Cup of Nations (25th edition). The Egyptian team (pic: wearing red) will win its fifth championship in the final against Côte d’Ivoire.

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2006

Births

1874
Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein

Egyptian explorer, in Cairo, Egypt. In 1915, he renounced the kingship upon his father’s death. It was the first time in Egyptian history that the heir to the throne gave up the right to rule. Popular legend asserts that he refused to rule while the British controlled the country, while other historians insist he was more interested in exploring. He did travel extensively, collecting antiquities. In 1925 and 1926, he led expeditions to the giant desert plateau that he named Gilf Kebir, and where he discovered prehistoric cave art that documents an earlier, green Egypt full of wildlife.

1948
Abdulrazak Gurnah

Tanzania/British author, in Sultanate of Zanzibar. Escaping the Zanzibar Revolution at age 20, he settled in Britain. His refugee experience and themes of exile, colonialism and failed governments in post-Colonial Africa informed his 10 novels, which impressed critics but only began selling after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021, only the second male African writer to receive the honour.

1973
Nadège Noële Ango-Obiang

Gabonese writer, in Libreville, Gabon. While studying economics, she won a prize for her poetry. This was followed by an award for a novel, and then an award for a song she composed. Her first poetry collection was published in 2001. Her output as a writer includes short stories, romantic novels, dramas, poetry and script writing.

1997
Anok Yai

South Sudan fashion model, in Cairo, Egypt. She first black women to open a Prada fashion house show in 21 years, in 2018, when she became only the second black woman to be awarded that honour. In a matter of months, she jumped from obscurity to fame as one of the world’s Top 10 models, after her photo went viral on Instagram and a major modeling agency signed her.