Decolonization of Africa

The decolonization of Africa refers to the wave of political independence that swept the continent primarily between the 1950s and 1970s, ending formal European colonial rule established largely after the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference. Libya (1951) was the first African state to gain independence in this period, followed by Sudan, Morocco, and Tunisia in 1956, and Ghana in 1957 under Kwame Nkrumah—the first sub-Saharan colony to break from Britain.

The pace accelerated dramatically in 1960, often called the "Year of Africa," when 17 territories—including Nigeria, Senegal, Madagascar, and the Belgian Congo—achieved independence. That same year, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 1514 (XV), the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which affirmed that subjugation of peoples to alien domination was a denial of fundamental human rights.

Several drivers converged:

• Wartime weakening of European powers after World War II.
• Pan-Africanism, articulated at the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress and later by leaders like Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, and Sékou Touré.
• Cold War competition, with both superpowers courting newly independent states.
• Armed liberation struggles, notably in Algeria (independence 1962 after war with France), Kenya (Mau Mau uprising), and the Portuguese territories of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau, which gained independence in 1974–1975 following the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was founded in Addis Ababa in 1963 to coordinate continental affairs and support remaining liberation movements. Zimbabwe (1980), Namibia (1990), and the end of apartheid in South Africa (1994) are often treated as the closing chapters. Decolonization also transformed the UN: African membership grew from 4 states in 1955 to over 50 by the 1980s, shifting voting patterns in the General Assembly and giving rise to the Non-Aligned Movement and Group of 77.

Contested legacies include arbitrary colonial borders, neocolonial economic ties, and ongoing debates over reparations and restitution of cultural property.