Rebel forces of Muhammad Ahmad who sought to seize control of Ethiopia are defeated in the Battle of Kufit. With Ethiopia distracted by the conflict, Italy seizes Ethiopia’s port of Massawa. Ahmad’s Islamic forces are not done yet; they will later attack Gondar and burn its holy churches.

Ogedemgbe of Ilesa (pic), the Commander of Ekiti-Parapo forces, and Osungbekun, the warlord of the Ibadan people, meet to end the nine year-old civil war in Yorubaland (Western Nigeria). However, after the ceremony of swearing eternal friendship, neither leader disbands his army, and hostilities will not end until 1893.

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Zebra are tried in place of oxen and horses to pull carts in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The attempt fails after too many people are hurt from zebras’ kicks. Zebra, it is learned, cannot be domesticated.

The World War II Battle of Dakar begins. French Resistance Leader General de Gaul seeks to establish a base in Senegal to reclaim French colonies from Nazi German control. However, after two days of fighting with French Vichy government that is allied with the Nazis, de Gaul and his British naval support will suffer a humiliating defeat. De Gaul will go on to establish a base in Cameroon.

Egypt demands modifications in the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that allows British soldiers to be stationed in the country during wartime. Egypt argues that the conclusion of World War II ended the need for British troops to remain indefinitely on Egyptian soil.

An attempt to introduce a constitutional monarchy for Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) is blocked by Maurice Yaméogo (pic) and his political allies. Yaméogo foresees a rivalry with a monarchy should one be established. He will have all the absolute powers of a monarch when he becomes the country’s first president at national independence in 1960, by which time he will have vanquished all political rivals and banned political parties.

A major earthquake recorded at 6.1 strikes Lake Kariba on the border of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). This is the first of what will be five major earthquakes by 2021. All the earthquakes will be caused by the weight of massive amounts of water that began to fill the world’s largest man-made lake between 1958 and 1963, following the completion of the Kariba dam. The dam was built in an area that has a history of seismic activity.

The first South African leader to visit the U.S. since 1946, President F.W. De Klerk arrives on a working visit to brief U.S. authorities on the dismantling of apartheid.

South Africa’s government sells six state-owned provincial radio stations. The money is to be used to reduce the government debt, build infrastructure and assist black empowerment.

CAPE 2006, the first large-scale exhibition of African contemporary art to be staged in South Africa, opens at various exhibit places in Cape Town. The art extravaganza features the work of approximately 70 contemporary artists across Africa and the African Diaspora.

Nigerian Afro-pop superstar Yemi Alade is appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Her first task is to advocate for aid for the African poor affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Gambia Women’s Lives Matter movement, seeking to end violence against women but also focused this year on the country’s high rate of maternal mortality – 597 women die for every 100,000 births – takes to the streets of Banjul. The demonstrators demand more government public health action.

The National Theatre of Somalia in Mogadishu re-opens, with film screenings attended by thousands in defiance of Islamic militants. The militants destroyed the theatre during the Somalia Civil War, and months after the landmark theatre’s restoration in 2012, militants destroyed it a second time with a suicide bombing.