The rapid wave of decolonization that, in barely two decades after World War II, dismantled European colonial rule across most of Africa — symbolized by 1960, the 'Year of Africa,' when seventeen countries became independent in a single year — restoring African sovereignty and raising soaring hopes, while leaving the new states the colonial borders, extractive economies, and fragile institutions that shaped their struggles ever after.
In 1960, seventeen African countries became independent in a single year. Flags rose, anthems played, and a continent that empires had carved up at a conference table seemed to be reclaiming itself. Yet the new nations inherited borders they had not drawn, economies they did not control, and institutions built to serve someone else. Winning a flag, it turned out, was not the same as inheriting a state.