AFRICA: Freedom Year

Resplendent in turbans, feathered hats and embroidered crowns, the tribal chiefs and government officials of Nigeria (pop. 33 million), assembled at London's Lancaster House, listened with pleasure as Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd gave them Britain's consent, set Oct. 1, 1960 as the date of birth for an independent Nigeria, to remain inside the British Commonwealth. The year 1960 is beginning to sound like freedom year for Africans. Also talking about independence on that date: French Cameroons, Togoland, Italian Somaliland.

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