Remembering the Sixties

This work focuses on one of the most critical periods in the history of post-colonial Africa: the euphoric and turbulent sixties when most countries on the continent won independence and were confronted with the harsh realities of nationhood including nation building and consolidation of institutions of authority as well as their sovereign status. It was a period of high expectations. But it was also a decade of military coups and assassinations, a phenomenon that persisted for decades although there were fewer coups in the 1990s and beyond contrasted with what took place in the previous years, especially the sixties and seventies when the largest number of military coups and assassinations of national leaders took place. The author addresses many subjects in an attempt to provide a comprehensive picture of Africa in the sixties, a defining moment and probably the most critical period in the post-colonial era. Everything that has taken place on the continent through the decades is somehow connected to what happened in the sixties. A complementary volume, Africa in The Sixties, addresses similar subjects.