Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite as Tanzania

Uganda became an independent state after negotiations among British authorities, the Buganda kingdom, and national political parties. The new state combined a central government with kingdoms and...

Thirty-two independent African states signed the OAU Charter in Addis Ababa. The organization committed to African unity, sovereignty, and the eradication of colonialism, including support for...

The Federation of Malaysia joined Malaya, Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak. Brunei did not join, and Indonesia opposed the federation through Konfrontasi; some communities in Sabah and Sarawak...

Kenya became independent after years of anticolonial organizing and the brutal Emergency, during which Britain detained hundreds of thousands and used forced resettlement, torture, and executions. The...

An uprising led by the Afro-Shirazi Party and allied forces overthrew the Zanzibar sultanate and its government. The revolution followed a narrow electoral victory by parties associated with Arab...

Northern Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zambia after decades of African labor organizing and opposition to the Central African Federation, which had privileged white settler political...

Singapore became an independent republic after its separation from Malaysia. The split followed political conflict over federal power, communal politics, and competing visions of multiracial...

Ian Smith’s white-minority government issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain to block majority rule. The declaration preserved settler political power over a Black African...

British Guiana became independent as Guyana. The new government inherited a society shaped by plantation slavery, indenture, racialized labor, and British colonial rule. Independence followed a...

The Bechuanaland Protectorate became the Republic of Botswana. Independence followed constitutional negotiations and an election, but the country remained economically dependent on South Africa and...