Begin Again Trivia Quiz

Answer: Haiti

The French Revolution over in Europe had inspired free people of colour and slaves to demand equal treatment. Slaves had been imported from Africa for the purposes of sugar production, and were treated cruelly by their white French masters, with diseases such as yellow fever rife and causing the deaths of many slaves. Tensions were high between whites and former slaves, and in the summer of 1791, thousands of slaves rose up against their masters and killed them. British and Spanish forces both aided the rebel armies against the French. Toussaint Louverture, a self-educated former slave and a leader among the former slaves, offered to fight for the French if they would free all slaves; however, he ended up being captured by the French and dying in prison, and the French fought back, ordering mass executions of black people, including crude gas chambers on ships.

This only served to unify rebel forces against the French, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the commander of the rebel forces, won several victories against the French, culminating in them surrendering. Dessalines declared Saint-Domingue independent the following year, and renamed it 'Ayiti', or Haiti, the indigenous Taíno people's name for the island.

Answer: Liberia

Liberia started out as a colony in West Africa for freed African slaves, in the area formerly known as the Pepper Coast; its capital of Monrovia was named after the US president James Monroe, who was a supporter of the colonisation of Liberia. The Society for the Colonisation of Free People of Colour of America, aka the American Colonisation Society, supported freed slaves moving to Africa; however, some African-Americans protested, preferring to stay in the US and fight for their rights there, and also seeing the concept as a means of getting rid of black American citizens. Slaveholders also saw freed slaves as a potential threat. Around 3/4 of immigrants to Liberia died of disease, and there were also clashes between indigenous people and the Americo-Liberians.

The ACS gradually handed more power over to Liberia, with the new state declaring independence in 1847 and former slave Joseph Jenkins Roberts being appointed its first president. Liberia was also notably one of the few states to remain independent through the Scramble for Africa by European countries.

Answer: 1950

For almost a century, Indians fought for independence against the British East India Company and then the British Raj, with figureheads of the movement including Mohandas Gandhi, the more radical Subhash Chandra Bose, and the poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Although the Indian Independence Act of 1947 - which led to the event known as Partition, and thousands of deaths caused by clashes between Muslims and Hindus - established the two independent states of India and Pakistan, India was still a dominion of the British Crown, and it was not until 1950 that the country became fully independent.

The Constitution of India, or Bharatiya Samvidhana in Sanskrit, came into effect on 26th January 1950, and Republic Day is celebrated in India today on 26th January as a commemoration.

The main feature of the celebration is the Delhi Republic Day parade, which takes place over 3 days and follows the Rajpath, a ceremonial boulevard.

Answer: The Statute of Westminster

The Statue of Westminster 1931 covered the Commonwealth territories of Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State (which never adopted it), New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and Newfoundland (which also never adopted it). It established legislative independence for South Africa.

However, despite the country's new independence, racial inequality was still a major problem. Under the Cape Colony Franchise, both black and white people had the right to vote; when the South African Parliament was granted new powers, it only extended voting rights for whites, and the system of apartheid came into being in 1948, with Afrikaners living at the expense of black, coloured (i.e. mixed-race) and Asian South Africans. Mixed-race marriages were banned, and non-white South Africans were evicted from their homes and forced into territories known as 'bantustans'.

The Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 led to an increase in violence on both sides, with one of the most tragic instances being the Soweto uprising of 1976, in which many black schoolchildren were killed or injured. Apartheid was finally repealed in 1991.

Answer: Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta was a leader of the Kenya African Union, the national political movement for Kenyans, which was banned in 1952. Kenyatta was a Kikuyu but unlike the Kikuyu Central Association, the KAU recruited members from all over Kenya. Although Mau Mau insurgents often mentioned Kenyatta in their oaths and saw him as a hero, Kenyatta distanced himself from the Mau Mau. Kenyatta was imprisoned in 1954, and was given the job of cook due to his age; his imprisonment increased his standing among Kenyans.

He was released in 1959, though he was still not entirely free; exiled to the remote area of Lodwar, he had to report twice daily to the district commissioner, and other leaders - including India's Jawaharlal Nehru and Tanganyika's Julius Nyerere - called for him to be released from these conditions.

The Kenya African National Union (KANU), formed from the ashes of KAU, nominated Kenyatta as their president. KANU won the general election in 1963, and Kenyatta became prime minister; he then became president when Kenya was declared independent the following year.

Answer: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The OAU was not the first regional organisation of African states; the Union of African States, consisting of Ghana, Guinea and Mali, existed from 1958 to 1963. The OAU was formed principally to unite African states, but it had several other aims. These included raising the living standards of all Africans, defending the sovereignty and independence of African states, and eventually ridding the continent of white minority rule, as some countries - such as South Africa and Angola - were still ruled by a white minority. It was made up of two blocs, the Casablanca bloc - which was led by Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah - and the Monrovia bloc, led by Senegalese president Léopold Sédar Senghor, and consisting mainly of former French colonies. Haile Selassie I, the Emperor of Ethiopia, invited both blocs to Addis Ababa, where the OAU was established. 32 governments signed its charter.

In 2002, the OAU was disbanded by South African president Thabo Mbeki and replaced by the African Union, also founded in Addis Ababa. Its representative body is the Pan-African Parliament, which has 265 members.

Answer: 17

To be exact, those 17 countries were, in order: Cameroon (1st January), Togo (27th April), Madagascar (26th June), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (30th June), Somalia (1st July), Benin (1st August), Niger (3rd August), Burkina Faso (5th August), the Ivory Coast (7th August), Chad (11th August), the Central African Republic (13th August), the Republic of the Congo (15th August), Gabon (17th August), Senegal (20th August), Mali (22nd September), Nigeria (1st October), and Mauritania (28th November). All but the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Belgian), Somalia (British and Italian), and Nigeria (predominantly British) were former French colonies. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan acknowledged in his 'Winds of Change' speech that change was sweeping through Africa, and that Europe did not have the hold over the continent it once did.

In South Africa, the anti-apartheid movement gained traction after the Sharpeville Massacre.

Answer: Panama

Costa, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and the Mexican state of Chiapas were all part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, a division of the Spanish Empire. When Ferdinand was deposed from the throne of Spain, unrest broke out in El Salvador. Both the French and American Revolutions, as well as the Enlightenment in Europe, encouraged the populations of the Central American territories to seek independence.

The 1811 Independence Movement in El Salvador was the first of several uprisings, and is known today as the 'primer grito', or 'first shout' for independence.

In 1812, the region was split into two provinces: Guatemala, which also contained Honduras, El Salvador, Belize and Chiapas, and Nicaragua y Costa Rica. All five countries became part of the First Mexican Empire after Mexico gained independence, and the Federal Republic was formed in 1823 after the Congress of Central America declared independence from Mexico.

The federation soon began to fall apart; Nicaragua broke away in 1838, with Honduras and Costa Rica following shortly after, and El Salvador was established as an independent republic in 1841.

As for Panama, it was part of the Republic of Gran Colombia at the time, and did not become a republic in its own right until 1903.

Answer: Tanzania

Tanganyika was part of the colony known as German East Africa, along with present-day Burundi and Rwanda. German East Africa was created as a result of the German military being asked to suppress a revolt against the German East Africa Company. Zanzibar, a former centrepoint of the Arab slave trade, was a British protectorate, ruled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, who was overthrown by African revolutionaries during the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964.

After the First World War, German East Africa was divided up among the Allies; Belgium got Burundi and Rwanda, and Britain got the remaining territory, which became Tanganyika.

In 1954, Julius Nyerere founded the Tanganyika African National Union, and in 1961, Tanganyika changed from a United Nations trust territory to a sovereign state.

Its monarchy was abolished the following year, and Nyerere became its first president. On 26th April 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania, the country's name being a portmanteau of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Answer: Harkis

The Harkis were Algerian Muslims who acted as auxiliaries for the French Army (the pieds-noirs were people of European descent who were born in Algeria during the French occupation, the maquis were French Resistance fighters, and the zouaves were a French Army unit containing soldiers of North African descent, disbanded after the Algerian War). The word 'harki' also applies to Algerian Muslims who sided with the French during the war. Although the Évian Accords pronounced a ceasefire between Algeria and France, the Harkis were regarded as traitors by other Algerians, and thousands of them were killed by lynch mobs or the FLN. Like the pieds-noirs, many of them tried to flee to France after the war, but Charles de Gaulle ordered to officials and army officials to stop them entering France, though some disobeyed and helped Harkis to escape.

After the Évian Accords, Algeria held a referendum in July 1962. 99.72% of the votes were in favour of independence, and Algeria was declared independent from France on 3rd July 1962. Ahmed ben Bella of the FLN became its first president.