Sub-Saharan Africa 1960: Year of Africa ends
Year of Africa ends
30 Apr 1947 Malagasy Uprising
01 Apr 1950 United Nations Trust Territories
25 Mar 1953 Mau Mau Uprising
01 Jan 1956 Independence of Sudan
06 Mar 1957 Independence of Ghana
02 Oct 1958 Independence of Guinea
03 Feb 1960 Year of Africa begins
26 Jun 1960 French Withdrawal from West Africa
14 Jul 1960 Congo Crisis
05 Aug 1960 UN Operation in the Congo
17 Aug 1960 French Withdrawal from Equatorial Africa
05 Sep 1960 Fall of Lumumba
24 Dec 1960 Year of Africa ends
In mid-September 1960 Colonel Mobutu ended the governmental crisis in the Congo by seizing control and imprisoning PM Lumumba. Lumumba escaped a few months later only to be recaptured and murdered while attempting to reach his supporters in the east. Meanwhile Nigeria - the UK's most populous African colony - and Mauritania gained independence, the last of the seventeen African nations to throw off foreign rule in 1960.