British Sir Charles Arden-Clarke and Kwame Nkrumah at the ceremonies
marking Ghana's independence from Britain - March 1957
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178a

Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah dancing with British Queen Elizabeth at the State House - 1961
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178a

Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah meeting with Egyptian President Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser - 1966
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178b

Sudan's Prime Minister Ismail al-Azhari with Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser in Cairo - 1954
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178b

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser with British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden
at the British embassy in Cairo - February 1955
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178b

Some of the 47 ships sunk by Nasser in the Suez Canal in 1956 (with yet others trapped inside the blocked-off canal).
Nasser thus shut down Europe's main route for oil from the Middle East
Popperfoto
 Meredith, p. 178b

1958:  General Charles de Gaulle, being greeted in Algiers as the savior of the French in Algera
The French Algerians were certain that de Gaulle was going to keep Algeria in French hands ... something, however, that was not destined to happen.
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178c

1961:  Angry French mass outside government headquarters in Algiers
They are listening to rebellious French generals condemning de Gaulle's plan to begin peace talks with the Algerian (Arab) nationalists.
The military was forced to back down after four days of resistance.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178c

1962:  Women gather in Algiers to vote on the referendum on Algerian independence.
Six million said 'yes,' Only 16,500 said 'no.'  Over a million French (the pied noir or 'black feet') fled to France in fear of Algerian nationalism,
leaving behind family homes, farms and businesses.
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178c

Eisenhower being introduced by de Gaulle to the strongly pro-French Félix Houphouët-Boigny - 1959
Houphouët-Boigny was a cabinet minister in the Gaullist government
... and future president of the Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178d

Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) President Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Tanganyika President Julius Nyerere
in Dar es Salaam - 1962
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178d

Senegal's President Léopold Senghor and his wife celebrating Senegal's first year of independence from France.
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178e

Malawi President Hastings Banda at a Commonwealth conference in London - 1964
For thirty years he would rule Malawi absolutely as his personal fiefdom.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178e

Jomo Kenyatta at the 5th Pan-African Congress in England which he helped organize - 1945
He would return to Kenya the next year (after almost 15 years out of the country, achieving a high level of Western education)
... to advocate for the return of the white farms to the Kikuyu tribesmen and for Kenyan independence.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178f

Jomo Kenyatta on trial for being a Mau Mau leader - 1953
He was imprisoned or detained from 1953 to 1961 ... and rose quickly to power after his releaset, becoming Kenya's first prime minister in 1963,
then President in 1964 when the constitution was amended to make the country a full republic.
(the white officer's face in this photo has been blotted out to protect him from Mau Mau revenge)
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178f

Jomo Kenyatta and Mau Mau leader 'Field Marshal' Mwariama offered amnesty under Kenyatta's 1963 ruling
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178f

East Africa's presidential trio:  Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, Uganda's Milton Obote and Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta - 1964
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178f

The Congo's ousted prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, held by Col. Joseph Mobutu's troops - 1960
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178g

Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara leading a Cuban expedition in the eastern Congo - 1965
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178g

South African prime minister Hendrick Verwoerd, designer of the apartheid ('separateness') policy
to keep white South Africa from being overrun by Black Africans
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178h

 

Nelson Mandela and his long-time friend Walter Sisulu at Robben Island prison - 1964
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 178h

Prime Minister Ian Smith signing Rhodesia's Declaration of Independence to avoid British pressures to integrate their White-dominated society - 1965
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 178h

Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie with his wife and grandchildren - 1954
Popperfoto
 Meredith, p. 370a

Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie
Popperfoto
 Meredith, p. 370a

A statue of Kwame Nkrumah outside Ghana's parliament building, pulled down and smashed during the army coup of 1966
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370b

Zaire (Congo) President Joseph Mobutu with American boxer Muhammad Ali at the Kinshasa palace - 1974
Magnum Photos
 Meredith, p. 370c

Zaire President Joseph Mobutu with American President Ronald Reagan at the White House
AP
 Meredith, p. 370c

Uganda's dictator, Sgt. Idi Amin, who claimed to be the conqueror of the British Empire and heir to the throne of Scotland
His regime was so brutal that the world would no longer be able to ignore the failure widespread in sub-Saharan Africa
of the democratic hopes it once had for the subcontinent
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370d

Idi Amin forcing white Ugandans to pledge alliegance to him with bowed head and bended knee
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370d

Although about to be defeated in a coup against him, Amin poses with remnants of his army - 1979
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370d

Self-anointed Emperor of the Central African Republic (now 'Empire') Sgt. Jean-Bedel Bokassa - 1977
His crowning ceremony cost $22 million - paid for mostly by France.
He would be deposed two years later by French troops for his butchery of schoolchildren protesting against his regime.
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370e

1972:  Col. Muammar Gaddafi, three years after his seizing power in Libya
Camera Press
 Meredith, p. 370e

Col. Haile Mariam Mengistu, enforcer of a Marxist regime in Ethiopia ... which succeeded in starving his population
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370f

Mengistu with his friend Fidel Castro, who sent 17,000 Cuban troops to Ethiopia to defend Mengistu's Marxist program
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370f

The scorched-earth tactics of Mengistu, designed to crush Ethiopian rebellions, produced massive famine and starvation
in Ethiopia ... despite massive food aid programs undertaken by the rest of the world
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370g

The destruction of Lenin's statue in Addis Ababa, two days after the overthrow of Mengistu's Marxist regime - 1992 
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370g

Zambia's President Kenneth Kaunda whose 25-year rule wrecked the Zambian economy
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 370h

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni amassed a huge personal fortune from the Congo's great mineral wealth
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370h

Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi, setting fire to confiscated elephant tusks (ivory was a highly protected commodity)
This was ironic because many of those who had profited greatly from the illicit ivory trade were politicians from his own inner circle of friends.
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 370h

Togo's President, Gnassingbé Eyedéma, who held power for 38 years (until his death in 2005)
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 562a

An American soldier on patrol in Mogadishu, Somalia, as part of 'Operation Restore Hope' - December 1992
The American intervention occurred because massive amounts of international food aid going to Somali famine victims
were being confiscated by warlords to feed their soldiers.  The American involvement ultimately ended catastrophically.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562b

Troops of Somali warlords governing the streets of Mogadishu
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562b

Tutsi victim of the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda conducted by Hutus (even Hutu Catholic priests)
Magnum Photos
 Meredith, p 562c

Rwandan Hutu's forced to take refuge in neighboring Zaire.
This was flight was undertaken by order of their Hutu génocidaire commanders
as the Hutus faced defeat from regrouping Ttusis.  In two days about 1 million Hutus participated in the massive exodus into Zaire.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562c
.

Once freed from the grip of the génocidaires, Hutus made their way back to Rwanda.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562c

Liberia's ruthless warlord, Charles Taylor, forced out of power in 2003.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562d

Gen. Omar al-Bashir, who seized power in Sudan in 1989 in order to undertake the purge of the country's 'enemies.'
This turned out to be virtually anyone other than Arab tribesmen of the northern part of the country - though the victims were principally pagan and Christian Black southerners
... as well as Black westerners in the Darfur Province, even though they, like Bashir, were Muslims.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562d

Janjaweed militia enforcers of al-Bashir' ruthless rule in Darfur Province
Bashir's program of 'ethnic cleansing' drove over a million people from Darfur into neighboring Chad.
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562d

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, whose ruthless dictatorship has ruined his country's economy
AP
 Meredith, p. 562e

South Africans lining up to vote in the 1994 elections - in which all races participated fully
Magnum Photos
 Meredith, p. 562f

Nelson Mandela riding with Queen Elizabeth during a visit to London - 1996
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562g

South African President Nelson Mandela and his successor Thabo Mbeki in 2003
Getty Images
 Meredith, p. 562g

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo with British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562h

American President George W. Bush with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo
Corbis
 Meredith, p. 562h

Prepared by Miles H. Hodges