The 22nd sultan of Egypt’s Bahri Dynasty, Sultan Al-Muzaffar Hajji, begins his short 15-month reign, which will becomes a lesson on misrule remembered for years to come. Disinterested in official duties, he will spend his time on pigeon racing, sports (wrestling, stick fighting), secretly marrying a slave girl from Sub-Saharan Africa and gambling away huge sums of gold and pearls. When he learns that Egypt’s frustrated Emirs wanted to depose him, he will go after them with his army, only to have his soldiers abandoned him. He will be caught and killed, and then be memorialised with the poem, “How much wrong and injustice did he commit, till the pigeon play became the seriousness of death!”

The city of Djidjelli, French Algeria, is struck by two large earthquakes, two days in a row, with extensive loss of life and property damage recorded. (pic: contemporary drawing showing the city before and after earthquake)

According to witnesses, the death of Mwezi IV, the last of the leaders of the independent Kingdom of Urundi (Burundi), was preceded by the arrival of the supernatural dog Runyerere, who appears upon the death of Urundi kings. Mwezi IV has ruled for 58 years, and functioned more as a spiritual father to his people than a political ruler.

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Of the top 30 products exported from British Kenya this past year, a colonial government gazette reports that all are agricultural products or ore, except for one: ivory. 23½ tons of elephant tusks worth £37,695 (equal to £2,523,208 in 2022) were exported to Britain or British possessions. Because it takes the deaths of 90 elephants to harvest one ton of ivory, 2,115 elephants were killed this past year alone for their tusks.

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The same type of ox-drawn wagons that brought them through South Africa one hundred years ago during the Voortrekker migration are still essential transport for many rural people. Their oxen teams must now endure blinding dust storms kicked up by modern cars that are increasingly dominating the roads.

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The Universidade de Lourenço Marques is founded, in Lourenço Marques (Maputo), Portuguese Mozambique. This is Mozambique’s first and will remain the country’s largest university. In 1975, the name will be changed to honour Eduardo Mondlane, the President of Mozambique’s liberation party FRELIMO from its founding in 1962 until his assassination in 1969.

The 26-year rule of Miguel Trovoada in São Tomé and Príncipe, which was temporarily interrupted when the military seized control six days ago on 15 August, is restored along with constitutional governance. Trovoada has agreed to some reforms demanded by the military.

The Hargeisa International Book Fair is launched in Hargeisa, Somalia, bringing together writers, poets and intellectuals from around Somaliland and the world. It will grow into a major annual cultural event in Somalia and the largest book fair on the Horn of Africa.

The Transitional Military Council that has run Sudan since the military ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir in April is replaced by a Sovereignty Council headed by a civilian Prime Minister.

Kenya's camel population has quadrupled in 20 years, from one million in 1999 to four million now. Some are used to give tourists beach rides, but most camels work inland, where they are proving adaptable to climate change, and produce for a growing camel milk industry.