26Marius Els
A man named Marius Els in South Africa adopted a baby hippo, domesticated it, only to be killed by said hippo in the very river from which it was rescued.
27. In East Africa, albinos are persecuted because they are believed to have magical powers. They are frequently kidnapped and sold for cash to witch doctors who use them as ingredients in magical potions.
28. Academy Award-winning composer John Williams (Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones) is the father of Toto ("Africa") frontman Joseph Williams.
29. Apartheid South Africa had a secret weapons program to develop germs that would only kill blacks or lower their birthrate.
30. South Africa has no legally defined capital city. Rather, the country's three branches of government are split over different cities: (Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein).
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Rodriguez
A Detroit musician (Rodriguez) living in poverty didn't know that in South Africa, he was more popular than the Beatles.
32. Leka II, Crown Prince of Albania, was born in South Africa. The South African government declared his maternity ward temporarily Albanian territory to ensure that Leka was born on Albanian soil.
33. The longest Cricket Test match was played over 12 days between England and South Africa and it was eventually abandoned, otherwise, the England team would have missed the boat for home.
34. Burkina Faso students invented a soap that repels the malaria mosquito which is the highest cause of death is Sub-Saharan Africa.
35. The distance between Europe and Africa is only 36 miles and there are talks of creating the longest bridge ever
36Thabo mbeki
During his time as President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki banned the use of antiretroviral drugs in hospitals because he did not believe HIV caused AIDS. During his presidency over 330,000 people died of AIDS.
37. Namibia auctioned off the rights to kill a rare black rhino for $350,000, the rhino was too old to breed and could've endangered other members of the herd.
38. The black-footed cat, Africa's smallest feline predator, has been known to kill sheep by hanging on to their throats until they have bitten through the jugular. Their maximum size is roughly 5 lbs.
39. Less than 4% of the slaves sent from Africa to the New World went to the United States.
40. There is a tree in Africa that is called "Bloodwood trees" because its sap is blood red.
41Julius Yego
Kenyan javelin thrower Julius Yego, who won Olympic silver medal in Rio Olympics 2016. He learned how to throw javelin properly by watching YouTube videos.
42. In 1959, Apartheid South Africa, the words "European" and "Non-European" were replaced by "Whites" and "Non-Whites" at Johannesburg Airport, because Americans tended to use the Non-European doors in order to distinguish themselves from actual Europeans.
43. 50 Cent has set a goal of feeding 1 billion people in Africa.
44. Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park, threatened to pull a Dave Chappelle by showing Comedy Central's head of network a plane ticket to Africa because one of their episodes were censored against their will
45. Google donated 5 million dollars to a program that uses drones to track poachers in Africa and Asia.
46Poop as luck
In World War 2, Germans tank drivers in Africa would drive tanks over camel poop for luck. Allies responded by planting land mines disguised as camel dung. Germans got wind of this and began riding over dung that was already overrun with tank tracks. In turn, Allies made mines looking like overrun dung
47. King Leopold II of Belgium was responsible for an estimated 10 million deaths in the Congo
48. Camels originated in the present-day United States and only later spread to Asia and North Africa
49. In 2007, two teams of armed intruders stormed their way into a nuclear plant used to store weapons-grade uranium from South Africa's decommissioned arsenal. The coordinated assault was thwarted by an off-duty firefighter, a plant employee, and their dog.
50. Scientists from South Africa discovered a formula that calculates how likely a frog is to eat another frog. "For every one-millimeter increase in body size, a frog is 2.8 percent more likely to eat other frogs."
