During both world wars, African people joined to support the armies of their respective colonial powers. These Africans who had fought for Europeans and they saw people die for the sake of nationalism during World War Two brought home a sense of nationalism, which motivated fellow Africans in different countries to fight for their own independence from their colonial powers. Such pan-Africans included Kwame Nkrumah from the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Jomo Kenyatta from Kenya. In many cases, these nationalists became the presidents for their newly formed countries.
Nationalists formed political parties which demanded independence from their colonial powers in different parts of Africa. Some colonial powers collaborated and granted independence to their African countries without resistance while other colonial powers resisted such change and independence in some of these countries was gained through the battle of the gun. For example, the French in Algeria and the British in Kenya made it hard for the nationalists to gain independence peacefully. Most African countries hoisted their national flags as a sign of independence between 1950 and 1990, with the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia as these two countries were not colonized.
|
