The Modern Commonwealth
The colonies become independent.
Those colonies, which had been made by drawing lines on a map, were now becoming nations; the people were beginning to feel a sense of unity. New leaders, often educated in Britain or the United States, started political parties. These parties campaigned for independence. The Prime Minister of Britain, Harold Macmillan, spoke of the rise of national consciousness in a speech he made in Africa in 1960: 'The most striking of all the impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of this African national consciousness. In different places it may take different forms, but it is happening everywhere. The wind of change is blowing through the continent'.
By 1970, most British colonies in Africa had become independent nations. The West African colony of Gold Coast, now Ghana, set the pattern. It became independent in 1957. The other British colonies in West Africa soon followed Ghana's example: the huge country of Nigeria became independent in 1960, Sierra Leone followed suit in 1961 and The Gambia in 1965.
In East Africa, the former colonies of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Uganda became independent in 1961 and 1962 respectively. The transition towards independence in Kenya was more painful since many Europeans and Asians had settled there and feared they would lose their lands. For some years the Mau Mau, a secret society, fought against the British. The British imprisoned Jomo Kenyatta, the main African leader, declared a state of emergency and flew in large numbers of troops. However, Kenya won its freedom in 1963, with Kenyatta as its Prime Minister.
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