How many African countries gained independence in 1960 alone, known as the "Year of Africa"?

How to get close to this number

Reason from the continent and the era. Africa has just over fifty countries, and the great majority became independent within a single postwar generation rather than gradually. If most of a continent decolonises across roughly fifteen years, the peak year has to carry a substantial share — well into double figures. That logic gets you close without knowing a single date.

The reason decolonisation clustered rather than spreading evenly is worth understanding, because it is what makes the number surprising. Once one colonial power conceded, the political and legal groundwork for the rest moved quickly, and a single administering state could transfer power across many territories at once. As the explanation says, most of that year's independences came from one empire, which is why they arrived together.

Counting requires deciding what independence means and which territories are in scope. Some states became independent and then merged or split within a few years; some transitions were staged, with internal self-rule preceding full sovereignty by a year or more. The figure here follows the United Nations' accounting, which is the standard reference, but any list of this kind embeds a set of judgement calls.