The author looks at some of the major events which took place in Africa in the early years of independence including challenges to statehood and nationhood which threatened the existence of some countries. He also looks at the struggle for independence in some of the countries which were among the last to win their freedom, and at some of the causes of conflict in a number of countries across the continent which can be traced to the wrong foundation laid in the sixties for the new African nations. Subjects covered include the Nigerian civil war which almost destroyed the Nigerian federation when the Eastern Region seceded in 1967 and established the independent Republic of Biafra, and which still haunts Nigeria today.