The Zulu civil war’s decisive Battle of Maqongco is fought, and ends with Zulu King Dingane’s defeat by the forces of his brother Mpane.

The first gospel sermon preached in Otjiherero, the language of the Herero people of German South West Africa (Namibia), is delivered by German missionary Carl Hugo Hahn. A linguist, Hahn sets to work on translating the Bible’s New Testament into the Otjiherero language.

The South African Aviation Corps is established, to provide air support for British action against the German colony South West Africa during World War I. An airfield will be built in Walvis Bay, which is South African territory surrounded by South West Africa. For aircraft, Henri Farman F-27s are purchased from France. From this unit will one day be formed the South African Air Force.

British Royal Air Force planes bomb the Dervish State (Somaliland). Britain is combatting the Dervish uprising that began in 1900 against British and Italian colonisation of the Horn of Africa. Today's air target is the Dervish Dhulbahante garesa fort at Gallbaridur.

In British Kenya, American writer Ernest Hemingway is made a Honourary Game Warden for a period of five years, in accordance with the country’s Wild Animals Protection Ordinance of 1951. This is done without apparent irony. In 1933-1934, Hemingway went on a killing spree in British East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), shooting an elephant, a rhino and many other Big Game. His writings popularise Big Game hunting as a means for white Westerners to project virile masculinity. He will be an animal warden for only two years before turning the rifle he used against African animals on himself.

Following an insurrection in Algeria by French colonialists protesting independence for the country, which is being considered by the French government, French President Charles de Gaul in a televised address reaffirms his decision to allow Algerians to determine their own future.

With the Arusha Declaration, Tanzania affirms its commitment to self-reliance under President Julius Nyerere’s socialist vision of the country.

Yoweri Museveni is sworn in as President of Uganda. A military council that has run the country following its 1985 coup d’état, which deposed President Milton Obote, has chosen one of its own in Museveni to run the country.

Because the chairmanship of the African Union rotates between Africa’s five regions, and it is East Africa’s turn, Sudan’s dictator Omar al-Bashir is scheduled to assume the chairmanship. Objections to atrocities that his regime is carrying out in Darfur leads to a crisis that is solved by giving Ghana’s President John Kufour (pic) the chairmanship on the pretext of honouring the 50th anniversary of the first African country to achieve independence from a European colonial power.

After Malian government and French troops liberate Timbuktu from Islamic terror group Ansar Dine, priceless Islamic manuscripts are discovered missing from the city’s historic Ahmed Baba Institute. While some have been burned by the terrorists, it is soon learned that 28,000 of the library’s 30,000 manuscripts, including its most valuable works, have been secreted away for safekeeping by courageous librarians. However, 2,000 others have disappeared.

Liberia’s President George Weah declares the country’s laws that deny citizenship to any person who is not of “Negro descent,” and which forbid foreigners from owning land, are “racist and inappropriate.” He vows to initiate corrective changes in the constitution.

Rwanda’s Gashora Farms signs a contract with Chinese buyers to export US$100 million worth of chilis each year to the Chinese market for the next 5 years. The deal will make chili peppers Rwanda's top export product.