EGYPT will celebrate the centenary of its independence from Britain in February. About 70 years ago, liberation began to sweep across the rest of Africa. December 1951 marked the independence of Libya. Ghana won its independence in 1957. The Congo followed in 1960, Tanzania in 1961, Algeria in 1962, Kenya in 1963 and Zambia in 1974.
Freedom came much later to the settler colonies in southern Africa. Mozambique won its end to colonial rule in 1975, and independence in Zimbabwe finally came in 1980. Still later, Namibia got its independence in 1990 and South Africa finally got its freedom in 1994.
Many of the men – and they were all men – who led national liberation movements to triumph were global figures, and often serious intellectuals as well as political…
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Daily News (Digital) - 1 Issue, 2021-12-15