The Sierra Leone Independence Movement (SLIM) campaigning for elections in pre-independence Sierra Leone, December 31, 1956.
Edward Blyden Library / Wikimedia Commons
It was midnight on October 9, 1962, in Kampala, Uganda—the former British colony at the source of the White Nile on the shores of Lake Victoria. The Namboole National Stadium was full. Katharine, Duchess of Kent, represented the British Crown and presided over the lowering of the Union Jack and the raising of the red, yellow, and black flag of the newly independent Republic of Uganda. A high-level delegation from Washington featured the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), accompanied by a bipartisan congressional group. As a very junior Foreign Service couple, my wife and I were
Source URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/africa/2016-01-04/winning-hearts-minds-and-independence