Africa Between 1960 - 1969

First African government is formed in Northern Rhodesia.

Frelimo headquarters are set up in Daar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika

Mbari Mbayo Club in Oshogbo, Nigeria, is opened with a performance of dramatist Duro Lapido's first play, Oba Moro. Many artists, inclusing American painter Jacob Lawrence, Georgina Beier, Dennis Williams, conduct workshops there.

First International Congress of African Culture, organized by Frank McEwen, is held in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). It seeks to adress the contemporary aesthetics of African Art and Music. Among the participating artists are Vincent Kofi, Ben Enwonwu, and Malangatana Ngwenya. Alfred Barr, William Fass, S.O. Biobaku, Roland Penrose, and Tristan Tzara attend

Historic and controversial Conference of African Literature in English language is held at Makerere University, Kampala, to debate the state of post-colonial African literature. Those who attend include Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ezekiel Mphalele, Lewis Nkosi, James Ngugi, Rajat Neogy. Several nationalist writers fail to acknowledge any literature written in non-African languages as being African literature

UN troops capture Katanga, Moishe Tshombe goes into exile.

Heads of thrity African states sign Charter of the Organzation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, creating the first inter-governmental African organizing body

Jomo Kenyatta becomes prime minister of Kenya after the country gains independence from Britain

Nigeria and Uganda become republics and members of the Commonwealth of Nations

Egypt and Syria merge to become United Arab Republic, a short-lived experiment in pan-Arab unity, with Gamel Abdel Nasser as president

Central African Federation of Nyasaland, Southern and Northern Rhodesia is dissolved

Dennis Brutus, prominent South African poet, publishes Sirens Knuckles Boots

Josiah Karuki publishes the autobiographical work Mau Mau Detainee

Zanzibar becomes independent

Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada and other prominent liberation leaders are tried for conspiration and sabotage at the Rivonia trial. All are found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela adresses court from the dock and refuses to renounce violence as self-defense in the fight against apartheid

Conference on the Curriculum of Higher Education held at Fourah Bay College, Freetown. Obi Wali continues to question the state of postcolonial literature and calls for the decolonization of African Literature

UN forces leave the Congo

Kenya becomes a republic, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first president

Nyasaland becomes independent as Malawi, with Hastings Banda as prime minister. Northern Rhodesia becomes independent as Zambia, under Kenneth Kaunda

Frelimo begins armed struggle against the Portuguese in Mozambique

Revolution in Zanzibar; Sultan overthrown and Karume becomes President. Tanganyika is united with Zanzibar to form Tanzania

Ama Ata Aidoo's The Dilemma of a Ghost is published

The three books in Duro Lapido's trilogy on the history of the Kingdom of Oyo, Oba Koso (The King did not hang), Oba Moro (The King of Ghosts), and Oba Waja (The King is Dead), are published to critical acclaim. Lapido and his theater make a successful appearance at the Berlin Festival with his Yoruba Operas Oba Koso and Eda; the group tours other European cities, including Brussels

General Mobutu comes to power in the Congo by ousting President Kasavubu in second military coup

Organisation Commune Africaine et Malgache (OCAM) is formed at conference of French-speaking heads of state

One-party state is adopted in Tanzania

Wole Sinyinka's first novel, The Interpreters, is published.

Fela Ransome Kuti returns to Nigeria and begins his experiments with a new, postcolonial African sound, which he calls Afrobeat

Ian Smith declares Unilateral Independence for whites-only Southern Rhodesia to stop the movement toward majority rule.

Commonwealth Arts Festival, London, features performances of plays written by Soyinka, Duro Lapido, and J.P. Clark

Papa Ibra Tall establishes Manufacture Nationale de Tapisserie in Thies, Sénégal

While on a state visit to Romania, President Nkrumah is overthrown by a military coup, bringing an end to the first historic pan-African government in the independence era

New Nigerian Constitution replaces Federation with unitary state. Twenty-nine die in conflict between Hausas and Ibos in northern Nigeria

Second military coup in Nigeria by northern officers. Head of military gobernment Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi is assassinated and succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Yakuba Gowon

Gambia, Botswana, and Lesotho gain independence.

Commonwealth Conference in Lagos

Shakespear's Julius Caesar is translated into Swahili by Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, during the same period that poet Jean Joseph Rabearivelo begins to use vernacular ballad forms of Madagascar rather than French-inspired forms

First novel by a Nigerian woman is published, Flora Nwapa's Efuru

Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage, the first major pan-African film festival, is launched by the Tunesian Ministry of Culture at the urging of Tahar Cheriaa

Gillo Pontecorvo's film "La Battaglia di Algeri" (The Battle of Algiers), which is about the Algerian War of Liberation, is released

African Arts magazine founded by John Povey at the University of California, Los Angeles

Ama Ata Aidoo's "Dilemma of the Ghost" is published