Arriving from Morocco, the black Muslim warrior leader Ṭāriq bin Ziyad launches an attack on Gibraltar. His army is composed of 15,000 Berber soldiers and an elite corps of Arab soldiers. He will conquer the coastline of Spain, which is a Visigoth state. The Spanish Jewish community, oppressed under Catholic Visigothic kings, welcomes the North Africans as liberators.

At 1:25 in the afternoon, a cyclone hits Mauritius with winds of 195 km/h, gusting to 212 km/h. The seventh strongest tropical cyclone in history devastates the islands, killing 1,200, leaving 50,000 homeless, and destroying five towns and 30 of the country’s 50 churches. More than 200,000 trees are uprooted, and with half the sugar crop ruined, the economy is devastated.

Ntare V, age 24, the last King of Burundi, is assassinated at age 24. He only reigned a few months in 1966 when a military coup d’état took over government and forced him into exile. His return last month (March 1972) was seen as an attempt to re-establish the monarchy, coinciding with an uprising of the Hutus. He is shot dead. In the months ahead, up to 210,000 Hutus will die in the genocide carried out by government forces.

The tourism train Rovos Rail makes its first trip, from Cape Town, South Africa to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, with only four paying customers. Recreating the romantic era of 19th train travel, its routes will expand as its reputation grows as “the world’s most luxurious train trip.”

The worst maritime disaster in Kenya’s history occurs when a ferry, the MV Mtongwe, capsizes just 40 metres from Mombasa’s shore. Of the 400 passengers on board, 272 people lose their lives.

Voting ends in South Africa’s first multi-racial democratic elections. Because of huge demand from non-white South Africans to cast their first votes, as well as technical and logistics problems, voting was extended an extra two days.

Diamond-rich Botswana is becoming the "big diamond" capital of the world as another giant (327 carat) diamond is found, two weeks after a 472 carat diamond was discovered. In 2017, an 813 carat diamond from Botswana will sell for US$63 million.

The Djamaa el Djazaïr, also known as the Great Mosque of Algiers, opens in Algiers, Algeria. The third-largest mosque in the world, its outstanding feature is the world's tallest minaret. The prayer hall has a capacity of 37,000 worshippers.

For the first time in history, drones are being been used to make regular long-range deliveries into densely populated urban areas, reports drone company Zipline. Ghana's two largest cities Accra and Kumasi, receive Covid-19 testing kits via drone air delivery.

All of South Africa's energy needs, in fact 800% of the country’s energy needs, can be provided by off-shore wind farms, finds the first complete study of South Africa’s wind resources, by Stellenbosch University.