FESTAC ’77 opens in Lagos

The Comorian parliament declared independence from France. The subsequent dispute over Mayotte and French control illustrates how decolonization could leave sovereignty contested across islands and...

São Tomé and Príncipe became independent from Portugal after the collapse of Portuguese dictatorship and negotiations with the liberation movement. The date marked sovereignty, while the plantation...

Angola achieved independence as Portuguese rule ended, but rival liberation movements and external military interventions immediately shaped the new state’s trajectory. This was a liberation from...

Black students in Soweto protested the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and the wider system of Bantu Education. Police violence transformed the protest into a national uprising...

Seychelles became independent from Britain. Its sovereignty added another island state to African continental institutions, illustrating the archipelagic breadth of African decolonization.

At its sixteenth ordinary session in Monrovia, OAU leaders adopted a declaration calling for national and collective self-reliance and a new international economic order. Its language challenged...

Nine majority-ruled southern African states formed SADCC to reduce economic dependence on apartheid South Africa and coordinate regional development. The project connected liberation solidarity with...

Zimbabwe became independent after a protracted liberation war and the Lancaster House settlement. Independence was a historic victory, while land redistribution and the colonial ownership structure...

African governments adopt a plan emphasizing self-reliant development, regional cooperation and reduced dependence on external economic control. The plan challenged externally imposed development...

The OAU adopted the African Charter in Nairobi, placing individual rights alongside collective rights, peoples’ self-determination and development. The treaty was an African-authored normative...