Decolonisation of Africa

The decolonisation of Africa took place in a mid-to-late 1950s to 1975 during the Cold War, with radical regime redesign on the continent as colonial governments exposed the transition to independent states. The process was often marred with violence, political turmoil, widespread unrest, as alive as organised revolts in both northern together with sub-Saharan countries including the Algerian War in French Algeria, the Angolan War of Independence in Portuguese Angola, the Congo Crisis in the Belgian Congo, the Mau Mau Uprising in British Kenya, the Zanzibar Revolution in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the Nigerian Civil War in the secessionist state of Biafra.

British Empire

On 6 March 1957, Ghana formerly the Gold Coast became the first sub-Saharan African country to work its independence from European colonisation. Starting with the 1945 Pan-African Congress, the Gold Coast's modern-day Ghana's independence leader Kwame Nkrumah reported his focus clear. In the conference's declaration, he wrote, "we believe in the rights of all peoples to govern themselves. We affirm the correct of any colonial peoples to rule their own destiny. All colonies must be free from foreign imperialist control, whether political or economic."

In 1949, the conflict ramped up when British troops opened fire on Ghanaian protesters. Riots broke out across the territory and while Nkrumah and other leaders ended up in prison, the event became a catalyst for the independence movement. After being released from prison, Nkrumah founded the Convention People's Party CPP, which launched a mass-based campaign for independence with the slogan ‘Self Government Now!’" Heightened nationalism within the country grew their energy and the political party widely expanded. In February of 1951, the Convention People's Party gained political power to direct or develop by winning 34 of 38 elected seats, including one for Nkrumah who was imprisoned at the time. London revised the Gold Coast Constitution to afford Ghanaians a majority in the legislature in 1951. In 1956 Ghana call independence inside the Commonwealth, which was granted peacefully in 1957 with Nkrumah as prime minister and Queen Elizabeth II as sovereign.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan gave the famous "Wind of Change" speech in South Africa in February 1960, where he subject of "the wind of change blowing through this continent". Macmillan urgently wanted to avoid the same classification of colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria. Under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly.

Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, apart from for Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the white minority resulted in a civil war that lasted until the Lancaster group Agreement of 1979, which shape the terms for recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of Zimbabwe.