Events relating to africa

Soweto begins to be built outside Johannesburg to segregate the city's black labour force

The British government bans hereditary ruler Seretse Khama from Bechuanaland because he has married a white woman

John Huston directs Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen, based on a C.S. Forester story

Libya wins independence from Italy, as a kingdom with Idris I as head of state

Kwame Nkrumah, recently released from gaol, becomes prime minister of the British colony of the Gold Coast

A group of officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser depose Egypt's king, Farouk, and send him into exile

Ahmed Ben Bella forms the Front de Libération National (FLN) to fight for Algerian independence

An outbreak of terrorism in Kenya is orchestrated by a secret Kikuyu organization, the Mau Mau

Jomo Kenyatta, charged with having organized the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, is sentenced to seven years in prison

South African author Nadine Gordimer publishes her first novel, The Lying Days

The two Rhodesias and Nyasaland are merged in the self-governing Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

A radical manifesto and acts of terrorism alert the world to the emergence of the FLN, committed to independence for Algeria

Gamal Abd al-Nasser mounts another coup, this time against his colleague Mohammed Neguib, to make himself president of Egypt

An armed uprising in Morocco persuades France to accept the principle of independence for the colony

Civil war breaks out in Sudan between the Muslim north and the Christian south

The Sudan, declining the opportunity of union with Egypt, opts for independence as a separate state

Tunisia wins independence from France, with Habib Bourguiba as prime minister

French Morocco and Spanish Morocco win independence from the two colonial powers

After a plebiscite British Togo is merged with the neighbouring colony of the Gold Coast

The USA and Britain withdraw their offer of financial aid for Nasser's Aswan dam

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