Africana & Black Studies

The end of the colonial period and the establishment during 1957–76 of all the former colonies as independent states was attributable both to a change in European attitudes toward Africa and the possession of colonies and to an African reaction to colonial rule born of the economic and social changes it had produced.

Between 1945 and 1960, three dozen new states in Asia and Africa achieved autonomy or outright independence from their European colonial rulers.

When the United Nations was founded in 1945, some 750 million people, nearly a third of the world's population, lived in Territories that were dependent on colonial Powers. Today, there are 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories remaining and fewer than 2 million people live in them. The wave of decolonization, which changed the face of the planet, was born with the UN and represents the world body’s first great success.

Contains various presentations on the decolonization of Africa.

Foreign intervention in Africa during the periods of decolonization and the Cold War failed miserably in that regard—as demonstrated in the Congo (1960–65), Angola (1975–92), and Chad (1968–84). Outside powers bolstered regimes that perpetrated injustice and inequality, stimulating conflicts that continue to threaten global security. Wrong-headed policies from this era offer cautionary tales of the disastrous consequences of policies that ignore history.

As the West focuses on its own survival, Africans have the opportunity to complete what their ancestors started.