The most profitable 25-year period for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade has begun. A record number, more than two million enslaved Africans, will be shipped to the Americans between now and 1800. Africans will physically construct the new North American Atlantic coast country, the United States of America, and by working the fields with their slave labour are already creating fortunes for southern states’ cotton plantations and northern states' cotton factories.
The Zong Massacre highlights the inhumanity of the Atlantic Slave Trade. British slave ship Zong, carrying hundreds of enslaved Africans ,sails off course, and drinking water runs low. To save water, 130 Africans are thrown overboard to their deaths. It is common practice to insure slaves against death at sea, and the Zong's owner will file a claim for his “losses.” Britain’s Lord Chief Justice will rule that the crew’s navigation error was responsible for any loss.
On a visit to England, the Ras of Ethiopia (pic: centre, holding his overcoat), who will become Emperor Haile Selassie in 1930, witnesses a demonstration by the British Air Force. Having never seen an airplane before, he asks if he could be taken on a flight because “it is very fitting that as regent of Abyssinia I should be the first Abyssinian to take flight in an aeroplane."
Nô Pintcha, the newspaper of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), prints an official statement from PAIGC-run government that admits to mass executions of Guinean soldiers who fought along with the Portuguese colonial government and against PAIGC in the war of independence, and they are buried in unmarked graves. 7,447 black Guinea-Bissauan African soldiers were summarily executed following independence in 1974. (pic: Portuguese Guinean soldiers in the 1960s)
The 46664 Concert, sponsored by former South African President Nelson Mandela, is held in Cape Town to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. 46664 was Mandela’s prisoner number when he was imprisoned on Robben Island off Cape Town. Entertainers included Beyoncé (pic: with Mandela), Johnny Clegg, Ladysmith Black Mambaso, Bono, Youssou N’Dour, U2, Queen, etc. Other 46664 concerts are held annually through 2008.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s worst railroad tragedy occurs when 60 people are killed while riding on the roof of an overcrowded train. They are struck by the beams of a bridge near Kindu, and are knocked into a river below.
At the Central African Republic, the third country visited on Pope Francis’ first trip to Africa, the Pope puts himself in harm’s way by traveling through an active war zone to tour a refugee camp.
Africa's first genetically modified animals are released in the wild, in Burkina Faso. To combat malaria, 10,000 sterile male Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes are being released, and will mate with local females. This will drive down the population of the deadly malaria parasite carriers.
For 170 years Steinway has made the world's finest pianos. Tshepiso Ledwaba from Pretoria, South Africa, becomes Steinway's first black technician after years of training to perfect his listening and tuning skills
President of Liberia (1944-1971), in Harper, Liberia. The “Father of Modern Liberia” was Liberia’s longest-serving president. He died in office, after rehabilitating the economy by attracting foreign investment, expanding all infrastructure and giving indigenous Liberians more of the power that had always been monopolised by descendants of African-American colonists.
President of Somalia (2012-2017), in Jalalaqsi, Somalia. His work as president to restore Somalia after decades of civil war through national reconciliation, addressing corruption and restoring security, earned international praise.
President of Ghana (2012-2017), in Damongo, Ghana. He was the first Ghanaian head of state born after the nation’s independence, from a generation with no first-hand knowledge of life under colonial rule.
South African musician and DJ, in Oukasie Township, Brits, Northern Province, South Africa. He popularised Kwaito music outside of South Africa’s township where the genre originated, and became a music mogul by connecting with the taste of youthful listeners.
