The Year of Africa

CHAPTER 5 · 1960 · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Now do something with this map: put the playhead in 1959 and drag it slowly through 1960. Watch the continent catch fire. In a single year seventeen states become independent — most of French Africa in one great cascade, plus the vast Belgian Congo, British Nigeria and Italian Somaliland. Cameroon in January, Togo in April, Madagascar in June, the Congo at the end of June, Somalia on 1 July, then in August a fortnight in which Dahomey, Niger, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Chad, the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Senegal all raise flags in turn, Mali in September, Nigeria — the

The turn: Lagos, 1 October 1960 — the giant rises.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.