Africa Since 1960 Practice Flashcards

A set of vocabulary-style flashcards covering the decolonization movements, key figures, and dates in African history since 1960.

Decolonization

The process by which colonies gain independence from colonial powers, dismantling political, economic, and cultural domination.

Pan-Africanism

The movement to unify Africans and the diaspora politically, culturally, and economically against colonialism and oppression.

Guerrilla war

A form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants use ambushes, sabotage, and hit-and-run tactics to fight a larger, less-mobile traditional military.

Liberation

The act of freeing a people or place from foreign control, colonial rule, or oppressive systems, often through political struggle or armed resistance.

Nationalism

A feeling of patriotism and loyalty to one’s country.

Independence

The state of a country or people being self-governing and free from external colonial or foreign rule.

National liberation movements

Organized African-led struggles, often armed, by a people to end colonial or foreign rule and gain independent statehood.

Saad Zaghlul

The leader of a nationalist delegation after WWI who requested the end of British rule in Egypt and Sudan.

22 February 1922

The date Britain issued a unilateral declaration of Egyptian independence following popular uprisings.

Kingdom of Libya

The state that gained independence from Italy under UN Trusteeship on 24 December 1951.

Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser

The leaders of the revolutionary government that overthrew King Farouk during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

Anglo-Egyptian Condominium

The joint British and Egyptian administration over Sudan that ended on 1 January 1956.

Habib Bourguiba

The leader of the Neo-Destour Party who led Tunisia to independence in 1956.

National Liberation Front of Algeria (FLN)

The organization led by Ahmed Ben Bella that waged guerrilla war from 1954 to 1962.

Secret Armed Organization

The group that resisted Algerian independence due to the large white settler population.

Kwame Nkrumah

The founder of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) who led the Gold Coast to independence as Ghana in 1957.

United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC)

The organization that led the early struggle for independence in the Gold Coast before Kwame Nkrumah founded the CPP.

National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC)

A Nigerian political party based in the Eastern Region (Igbo land).

Yoruba Action Group (AG)

A Nigerian political party based in the Western Region (Yoruba country).

Northern People’s Congress (NPC)

A Nigerian political party based in the Northern Region (Fulbe-Hausa).

French West Africa

A federation of eight territories: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (Mali), French Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Dahomey (Benin), and Niger.

French Equatorial Africa

A federation of four territories: Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon.

Charles De Gaulle

The French President who decided to hold a referendum in 1958 to defuse nationalist struggles in French West and Equatorial Africa.

Sékou Touré

The leader of Guinea (Conakry) who voted NO to the 1958 French referendum, leading to independence on 2 October 1958.

Overseas provinces

The status Portugal and France assigned to their colonies to justify keeping their empires intact and considering them part of the home country.