Maize has been introduced to Africa by Portugal, which brought the grain from South America. Maize was first grown to provide food for soldiers at Portuguese forts on Southern Africa’s east and west coasts. But African farmers have now begun to grow the crop, which produces a good yield in a few months’ growing time and requires relatively little labour where rains are adequate. In the next three centuries, maize will be grown in every African country and become the staple food for many African peoples.

British Bechuanaland is established as a British Crown Colony. Separate from Bechuanaland to its north (a British protectorate that will one day become Botswana), the territory belongs to the Tswana people (Bechuanaland means "land of the Tswana") that was seized by Boer (white South African) settlers. The Boer invasion caused an uprising among the Tswana people, and the British intervened. The Tswana people have never agreed to British authority over their country, and have not been consulted about their lands become a Crown Colony. Britain sees their move as a way to limit Boer territorial expansion in Southern Africa (pic: young warrior of the Bamangwato, one of the eight main Tswana tribes)

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With permission from the League of Nations, French authorities arrive in Lomé, Togoland (Togo) to administrator the former German colony. The Togolese people are given no say in the change of governance.

South Africa’s Immorality Act goes into effect, prohibiting extramarital sex between white and black persons. In 1950, the act will be amended to prohibit whites from having sex with any non-white race.

Having been Britain’s High Commissioner for Southern Africa, Evelyn Baring arrives in Kenya as the new colonial governor. Highly respected and decorated in the British Empire, Baring is a racist who was involved in preventing Seretse Khama from become king of Bechuanaland (Botswana) because Khama was married to a white woman. In Kenya, he will imprison independence advocates like future president Jomo Kenyatta, viewing them as the same as the Mau Mau militants. He will bribe the judge and witnesses in Kenyatta’s trial to ensure a conviction.

The Battle of Algiers begins when three women simultaneously place bombs at three downtown locations, including the offices of Air France, as the Algerian War of Independence intensifies against France.

Botswana achieves national independence, from Britain. The capital is Gaborone. The national population is 571,957.

Nigeria’s primary centre for the performing arts, the National Arts Theatre, is dedicated in Lagos, by the Nigerian Head of State Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obsanjo.

The Namibian Stock Exchange is launched, in Windhoek. Trading is in Namibian dollars. The first shares will be traded tomorrow (1 October), for the local furniture retailing company Nictus.

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All six regional services of the South African Broadcasting Corporation are sold to private buyers as the old apartheid state radio system is broken up to encourage a competitive and diverse broadcasting environment.

Morocco’s government allows intellectual and political activist Abraham Serfaty to return from exile, restores his citizenship, and gives him a house and post as government energy advisor. He will continue to criticise government on human rights, press freedom and foreign affairs until his death in 2010.

Germany returns to Namibia the skulls and bones of Herero and Nama people who were exterminated during Germany’s 1904 genocide against them. The victims’ cadavers were taken to Europe for use in "scientific research."

The first day of trading on the new Cape Town Stock Exchange in South Africa.