Africa Today/Yesterday Logo

BC 10,000

Clearly showing where he originated in East Africa before migrating to be among the first people to live on the British Isles, the Cheddar Man (as his kind are named in the 21st century when his remains will be DNA tested to reconstruct his appearance), is a blue-eyed, dark-skinned, dark-haired person roaming today what will become the U.K.

#
BC 10,000

1881

A baboon named Jack begins work on the Cape Town-Port Elizabeth Railway at Uitenhage, South Africa. He was purchased by railway employee James Wide after Wide saw Jack driving a team of oxen. Wide, who lost both legs in a train accident, needs an assistant. Jack pushes Wide to work on a wheeled trolley, and changes signals to direct train traffic. When railroad authorities learn of Jack, they will fire Wide, but then change their minds and rehire him when they witness Jack's efficiency as a signal changer and the way he can run faster than a man to deliver to train engineers the keys to the coal shed.

#
1881

1920

Africa becomes a commodity for debt payment as France offers two of its colonies to Britain. France needs to pay off World War I debuts, and is willing to give French Somaliland (Djibouti, pic) and Madagascar. The Africans of both places are not consulted. The deal is never finalised.

#
1920

1927

Italian aviators Pinedo, Del Prete, and Zacchetti depart Cabo Verde in an attempt to fly across the Southern Atlantic Ocean. They will succeed, making it to Brazil.

#
1927

1966

The autonomous Niger River Republic is declared by Nigerian army Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro (pic: white shirt) who considers armed revolt as the only way to ensure that the Ijaw people receive their fair share of revenues from oil taken from their lands. The Federal Government monopolises the oil, leaving the local people impoverished. Federal forces will put down the rebellion in 12 days, but the underlying issue willl remain unresolved, and militancy as a means to overcome the injustice persists in 2023.

#
1966

1972

The Ahmadou Adhijo Stadium, named after Cameroon’s president, opens in Yaoundé, Cameroon, with the first day of football matches of the 1972 Africa Cup of Nations.

#
1972

1999

South Africa puts its first satellite into Earth orbit. A navigational satellite made at Stellenbosch University is launched on a U.S. Air Force rocket from California.

#
1999

2018

Botswana is Africa's most honest country, finds Transparency International's new Corruption Perceptions Index, and is the 34th least-corrupt country of 180 countries surveyed. (pic: Gaborone's financial district at night). Seychelles follows closely at #36. However, by 2023 Botswana's score will have dropped, while Seychelles improves, to become Africa's least-corrupt country.

#
2018

2019

With booming construction, energy and telecom sectors, Egypt overtakes South Africa as Africa’s second largest economy, reports PricewaterhouseCoopers. Egypt’s GDP of US$1.13 trillion compares with South Africa’s GDP of US$766 billion. For the second year in a row, Nigeria remains Africa’s largest economy, with a GDP of US1.17 trillion. (pic: Egypt’s currency, the Egyptian pound)

#
2019

2022

Africa’s first clown convention, the Circa Convention International des clowns d'Afrique Cameroun, brings professional and aspiring clowns and jugglers together in Cameroon to learn from each other and delight audiences.

#
2022

Births

1924
Allan MacLeod Cormack

Nobel Prize in Medicine Laureate 1979, in Johannesburg, South Africa. His work on X-ray computer tomography led him to co-invent today’s essential diagnostic tool, the CT scanner.

1984
Franck Moussima

Cameroonian judo champion, in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The brawny judoka was admired by billions of TV viewers when he was Cameroon’s flag bearer at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. He twice won the All-Africa Games judo championship as a light heavyweight, in 2007 and 2011.