Decolonisation of Africa

The decolonisation of Africa was the process by which European colonies on the continent became independent states, mostly in the decades after the Second World War. Ghana, under Kwame Nkrumah, became the first sub-Saharan colony to gain independence from Britain, in 1957. In 1960, the so-called Year of Africa, seventeen colonies became independent, many of them French, and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan spoke of the wind of change blowing through the continent. The process was largely peaceful in some places and violent in others, including the Algerian War, the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya and the chaos in the Congo. Portugal held on to its colonies until the mid-1970s, after a revolution at home. Borders drawn by colonial powers left a difficult legacy.

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