Akitoye (pic) is installed for a second time as the Oba of Lagos. The British have helped by forcing out Kosoko Oba after what the Yoruba people have called Ogun Ahoyaya ("The Battle of the Boiling Canons"). Kosoko is Akitoye’s nephew who ousted Akitoye in a 1845 coup d’état. In three days, on 1 January 1852, Akitoye will sign a treaty between Lagos and Great Britain that outlaws human sacrifice and the slave trade in what will become Nigeria.
The Jameson Raid is carried out by 600 British mercenaries from Cape Colony in South Africa, Bechuanaland (Botswana) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), led by Leander Starr Jameson against the Transvaal Republic. The attack’s goal is to trigger an uprising by British workers in the Boer republic who face discrimination as “Uitlanders” (“foreigners”).
Ubangi-Shari is created as a part of French Equatorial Africa through the combination of the Upper Ubangi territory and the Upper Shari territory (both named after the local Ubangi and Shari rivers). At the twilight of the colonial era, the name will be changed on 1 December 1958 to the Central African Republic, which will become an independent nation in 1960.
South Africa first radio broadcasts are begun by the Western Electric Company in Johannesburg, after the company made an experimental broadcast on 18 December. South African Railways is sponsoring the broadcasts.
The U.S. designates Libya as “a state sponsor of terrorism.” All U.S. personnel have departed the country, following the burning of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli on 2 December 1979. (pic: Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi)
Tourism in Zimbabwe surpasses one million visitors for the first time: 1,039,000, representing nearly double the 1990 number of 583,000. In 1995, tourists will number 1,416,000.
Egypt’s regime of President Hosni Mubarak cracks down on dissent as soldiers and police raid offices of foreign NGOs thought to aid the pro-democracy movement.
After 2,500 fatalities in two years, an Ebola epidemic in Guinea is over, declares the World Health Organisation. The WHO credits lessons learned from previous Ebola outbreaks in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West Africa that established best practices to handle such deadly pandemics.
Nigeria's Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank, is voted "African of the Year 2019" by 300,000 participants in poll by African Leadership magazine. His motto: "Africa is the place to be."
Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist and politician, in Diourbel Region, French Senegal. His hugely influential and controversial work theorized that there is a core African quality or sensibility that transcends ethnicities, cultures and languages and is shared by all Africans.
Algerian football player and manager, in Mascara, Algeria. Considered the best Algerian football player of all time and the best football player in Africa during his career, he was chosen CAF’s African Footballer of the Year 1981. His goal against the European champions West Germany earned his Algerian national team a stunning 2-1 underdog victory in the team’s very first World Cup appearance, in 1982.
