OAU adopts the Monrovia Declaration on collective self-reliance

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.

The Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture opens in Lagos, bringing artists and intellectuals from Africa and the diaspora together. It presented cultural production as part of...

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...

The African Charter became binding on states that had ratified it. Its entry into force created a regional human-rights framework that recognized peoples’ rights and development, while the gap between...