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The struggle for independence

“Vade Retro domum” - “Nolo Relinquere”

Nigeria presented the greatest challenge to British and African policymakers alike. In the
south, two nationalist parties emerged, the Action Group (AG), supported primarily by the

Yoruba of the west, and the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), whose
prime support came from the Igbo of the east.

French Colonies

In 1946 politicians in French West Africa organized a federation-wide political
association, the African Democratic Rally (RDA).

***
By 1956 [RDA leader] Houphouët-Boigny's policy had secured a widening of the colonial

franchises and the beginnings of a system by which each colony was on the way to
becoming a separate unit in which African ministers would be responsible for some of
the conduct of government.

***
In 1958, the French Fourth Republic collapsed and de Gaulle was returned to power. On
September 28, 1958, in a referendum, the colonies were offered full internal self-
government as fellow members with France of a French Community that would deal with

supranational affairs.

All of the colonies voted for this scheme, except Guinea, where Sékou Touré led the
people to vote for complete independence. Senegal and the French Sudan were then
emboldened in 1959 to come together in a Federation of Mali and to ask for and to

receive complete independence within the community. These two territories separated in
the following year, but all the others now asked for independence before negotiating

conditions for association with France, and by 1960, all the former French colonies were
de jure independent states.

Portuguese Colonies

Encouraged and aided by independent neighbours, Guinean nationalists took up arms in 1962
and after 10 years of fighting expelled the Portuguese from three-quarters of Portuguese

Guinea. In 1974, the strain of this war and of wars in Mozambique and Angola caused the
Portuguese people and army to overthrow their dictatorship. Independence was quickly
recognized for Guinea-Bissau in 1974 and for the Cape Verde Islands and Sao Tome and

Principe in 1975.