Before the wide adoption of standard time zones, local mean time was widely used in railway time for train timetables and telegraphic time for telegraphy.[7] Local mean time is a solar time that corrects the variations of local apparent time by forming a uniform time scale at a specific longitude;[8] for instance, Liberia observed UTC-0:44:30 instead of an approximate offset such as UTC-01:00.[9] British Rhodesia (at the time administered by the private British South Africa Company) was the first area in Africa to adopt standard time, switching to UTC+02:30 on 1 August 1899 as the previous time standards proved problematic for the railway system.[10] Other countries followed suit, and by 1912, most Portuguese,[11] French and British territories had adopted a standard offset.[12] Liberia was the last country in Africa to adopt a standard offset, doing so on 7 January 1972.[13]
Before the wide adoption of standard time zones, local mean time, which is a solar time that corrects the variations of local apparent time by forming a uniform time scale at a specific longitude,[8] such as railway time for train timetables and telegraphic time for telegraphy, was widely used.[7] Due to the large size of the British company rule in Rhodesia, it meant Rhodesia observed three standards of time: UTC+01:30, +2:15 and +2:30; this was problematic for the railway system, so on 1 August 1899 the standard time zones UTC+02:30 was adopted nationwide,[10] consequently resulting in this being the first standard time in Africa. This would soon be followed by Egypt, which adopted standard time on 1 October 1900;[21][22] Nigeria adopted standard time on 1 July 1905,[23] Seychelles in 1906,[24] Mauritius on 1 January 1907,[21] Togo in 1907,[12] Algeria on 11 March 1911[9] and Tunisia on 12 April 1911.[21] Most Portuguese territories (including Cape Verde and Mozambique) adopted standard time on 26 May 1911,[11] followed by most remaining French and British territories on 1 July 1911 and 1 January 1912.[21][25] The Gambia adopted standard time in 1918.[26] Liberia was the last country in Africa to adopt a standard offset, doing so on 7 January 1972.[13] The latest time change was South Sudan, which switched from UTC+3 to +2 on 1 February 2021.[27]
Daylight saving timeedit
As Africa straddles the equator and tropics, there is little change in daylight hours throughout the year[4] and as such daylight saving time (DST) is currently observed in only one country, Morocco, however it was also previously observed in several other countries: the countries that formerly observed DST are South Africa, which last observed it in 1944,[28] Cape Verde in 1945,[29] Madagascar in 1954,[29] Ghana in 1956,[30] Sierra Leone in 1962,[31] Algeria and Chad in 1980,[9] Sudan in 1985,[9] Tunisia in 2008,[32] Mauritius in 2009,[29] Libya in 2012,[33][34] Egypt in 2015,[35] and Namibia in 2017.[36] Since 2019,[37] Morocco has observed UTC+01:00 year round except during the month of Ramadan, when it switches to UTC±00:00 as to not interfere with the month's fasting (sawm).[38][39]
^First appeared in the 1969 "Sailing Directions for Southwest Coast of Africa, Cape Palmas to Cape of Good Hope" published by the Naval Oceanographic Office,[90] which is compiled the year before publication. Equatorial Guinea did not appear in the 1968 edition (compiled in 1967) or earlier.
Ogle, Vanessa (2015). The Global Transformation of Time 1870-1950. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674737020. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
Shanks, Thomas G. (1985) "The International Atlas: World Longitudes and Latitudes Time Changes and Time Zones". ACS Publications. ISBN 9780917086571. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
Pearce, Chris (2017). The Great Daylight Saving Time Controversy. Australian eBook Publisher. ISBN 9781925516968. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
Inlineedit
^Mortada, Dalia (30 January 2015) If you have a meeting in Ethiopia, you'd better double check the time. The World. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^ abcdefgAfrica Time Zones. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^ abcdefghiTime Zones In Africa. World Atlas. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^ abKröger, Pekka; Oja, Heikki; Donner, Karl Johan; Poutanen, Markku (2007) "Fundamental Astronomy". Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 34. Retrieved 11 September 2021. ISBN 9783540341444.
^ abcTolbert, William R. (1972). Republic of Liberia presidential papers: documents, diary and record of activities of the Chief Executive, July 23, 1971-July 31, 1972. Monrovia, R.L. [i.e. Republic of Liberia]: Executive Mansion. p. 330. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Bartky, Ian R. (2007) "One Time Fits All: The Campaigns for Global Uniformity". Stanford University Press. p. 134. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
^Fitzpatrick, Mary (2000) "South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland". Lonely Planet Publications. p. 98. "All three countries use South African Standard Time". Retrieved 10 September 2021.
^National Institute for Exploration (1987) "Egypt: Images of Adventure". Viewfinder Publications. p. 131 "[…] Egypt observes Eastern European Time, which is 2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time." Retrieved 11 September 2021.
^يرجى التقديم الآن: برنامج منح فولبرايت 2021-2022 للطلاب الأجانب. (in Arabic). U.S. Embassy in Libya – ly.usembassy.gov. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
^Maurel, Martine (2000) "Mauritius Travel Guide (Globetrotter Travel Guides)". New Holland Publishers. p. 126. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
^Skerrett, Adrian; Drynan, Kate et al. (2017) "Seychelles - Berlitz Pocket Guide". Berlitz Publishing. p. 117 "Seychelles time is GMT plus 4 hours…". Retrieved 12 September 2021. ISBN 9781780049557
^ abcUnited States. Bureau of Standards (1932) Issue 399, Circular of the Bureau of Standards. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 10. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^ abRind, W. L. (January 1907) "The Laws of Seychelles Revised: Seychelles local laws, 1899-1906, by W.L. Rind." Government of Seychelles. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1689, "The Standard Time Ordinance, 1906. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^ abHowse, Derek (1997) "Greenwich Time and the Longitude: Official Millennium Edition". National Maritime Museum. Bloomsbury USA. p. 148. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^ abRédaction Africanews (29 January 2021) South Sudan to switch new time zone in February. Africanews. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Committee for Social Affairs (1993) Report of the Committee for Social Affairs of the President's Council on a Daylight Saving Programme. Government of South Africa. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^Gold Coast (1957). "Annual Volume of the Ordinances of the Gold Coast Enacted During the Year 1956". Government Print. Department. Government of Ghana. p. 83, Time Determination (Amendment) Ordinance, 1956 (No. 21 of 1956), 29 August 1956. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^التخلي نهائيا عن اعتماد التوقيت الصيفي في تونس, 27 March 2010. (in Arabic). ar.webmanagercenter.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^"Clocks to go back an hour on Saturday", 4 November 2012. Libya Herald. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^ ab"CORRECTION: no time change tomorrow", 24 October 2013. Libya Herald. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
^Ahram Online (20 April 2015) "No daylight saving this summer: Egypt's prime minister". Al-Ahram. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^Nakale, Albertina (9 August 2017) National Council passes Time Bill in favour of summer time Archived 2018-07-20 at the Wayback Machine. New Era Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^Alami, Ziad (16 April 2019) VOICI LA DATE DU RETOUR À L’HEURE LÉGALE AU MAROC. (in French). Le360. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
^Kasraoui, Safaa (30 March 2021) Ramadan: Morocco to Switch Back to GMT on April 11. Morocco World News. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^Kasraoui, Safaa (10 April 2021) Reminder: Morocco to Go Back to GMT Sunday for Ramadan. Morocco World News. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^Ghana Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Gold Coast (1915). "Ordinances of the Gold Coast, Ashanti, Northern Territories, and Togoland Under British Mandate". Government Print. Department. Government of Ghana. p. 69–71. "Interpretation Amendment Ordinance, 1915" (No.24 of 1915), 2 November 1915. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Gold Coast (January 1943). "Annual Volume of the Laws of the Gold Coast: Containing All Legislation Enacted During Year 1942. Government Print. Department. Government of Ghana. p. 22, "Defence (Time Determination Ordinance Amendment) Regulations, 1942 (Regulations No. 6 of 1942), 31 January 1942. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Gold Coast (January 1946). "Annual Volume of the Laws of the Gold Coast: Containing All Legislation Enacted During Year 1945". Government Print. Department. Government of Ghana. p. 256, "Defence (Revocation) (No.4) Regulations, 1945 (Regulations No. 45 of 1945), 24 October 1945. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Equatorial Guinea Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Naval Oceanographic Office (1968) "Sailing Directions for Southwest Coast of Africa, Cape Palmas to Cape of Good Hope". p. 5. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
^Morocco Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Government of Morocco (26 October 2018) الاستمرار في العمل بالساعة الإضافية : (GMT + 1) Archived 2018-10-29 at the Wayback Machine. (in Arabic). mmsp.gov.ma. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Staff Writer (30 October 2018) Editorial: GMT+1 Angers and Confuses More than ‘Benefits’ Moroccans. Morocco World News. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Botswana Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Chapter: 01:04 (20 July 1984). "Interpretation Act 1984 (§40(1))". Archived from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Wood, H. E. (1927–28) "Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa and of Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, and Swaziland. No. 10. p. 61, chp. 1. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^South Sudan Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^ abSudan Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Clocks to be moved ahead by 60 minutes as of Saturday noon, 13 January 2000. Sudan News Agency. Archived from the original on 9 July 2000. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Cabinet Resolution No. 352 for the year 2017. Government of Sudan. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Ethiopia Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Faculty of Law, Haile Sellassie I University (1972) "Consolidated Laws of Ethiopia: An Unofficial Compilation of National Laws in Effect as of September 10, 1969. Prepared in Co-operation with the Office of the Prime Minister, Imperial Ethiopian Government, by the Faculty of Law, Haile Sellassie I University • Volume 2". p. 821. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Kenya Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Ham, Anthony; Kaminski, Anna; Duthie, Shawn (2018) "Lonely Planet Kenya". Lonely Planet Publications. Kenya → "Time: East Africa Time (GMT/UTC plus three hours)". Retrieved 14 September 2021.
^The Defence (Amendment of Laws No. 120), Government Notice №655. 16 July 1942. Kenya Official Gazette Supplement, No. 32. p. 331. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Somalia Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^United States. Bureau of Standards (1932) Issue 399, Circular of the Bureau of Standards. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 14. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^"Gazette. Supplement [1̈ Government Notices]", 1929. Tanganyika. p. 9 "Interpretation (Standard Time) Order, 21 January 1929. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
^Interpretation (Standard Time) Order, 1 January 1936. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
^Interpretation (Standard Time) Order, 1 August 1942. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
^Uganda Time Zone. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Time in Uganda. Lonely Planet. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
^Interpretation Act, 23 July 1976. Law Reform Commission of Uganda. ULII – Legal Information Institute (LII). Part VI – Miscellaneous, 33. Time. Retrieved 7 September 2021.