British East Africa

State · 1961–1972 CE · at its largest around 1961 CE

British rule brought the Uganda Railway, settler farms in Kenya's fertile highlands and cash crops like coffee and tea, while many Africans lost land and were pushed into wage labour. Anger fed the Mau Mau uprising, brutally crushed, and the drive to independence.

On its lands while it lasted

Haile Selassie (1892 CE – 1975 CE): Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 who appealed to the League of Nations against the Italian invasion; deposed by the Derg military junta in 1974.
Jomo Kenyatta (c. 1897 CE – 1978 CE): Kenyan anti-colonial activist imprisoned by the British, who became Kenya's first prime minister and president after independence in 1963.
Kwame Nkrumah (1909 CE – 1972 CE): Leader of Ghana's independence movement, its first prime minister and president, and a leading advocate of Pan-Africanism.
Nelson Mandela (1918 CE – 2013 CE): Anti-apartheid leader imprisoned for 27 years who became South Africa's first Black president in 1994 and shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.
Idi Amin (c. 1925 CE – 2003 CE): Military dictator of Uganda from 1971 to 1979 whose regime killed an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 people and expelled the country's Asian minority in 1972.
Patrice Lumumba (1925 CE – 1961 CE): First prime minister of the independent Congo, deposed months after independence and executed in Katanga in January 1961.
Congo Crisis (1960–1965 CE): Period of civil war, secession and foreign intervention in the newly independent Congo, including the killing of Patrice Lumumba, ending with Mobutu's seizure of power.
Niamey (c. 1961 CE): Capital of Republic of the Niger (1961–today).
Porto-Novo (c. 1961 CE): Capital of Republic of Benin (1961–today).
Cotonou (c. 1961 CE): Capital of Republic of Benin (1961–today).
Zanzibar City (c. 1963 CE): Capital of Sultanate of Zanzibar (1963–1964).
Kampala (c. 1963 CE): Capital of Republic of Uganda (1963–today).
African Unity founded (1963 CE): Founded in Addis Ababa on 25 May 1963 by 32 independent African states to promote unity and end colonialism; replaced by the African Union in 2002.
Gaborone (1965 CE): Capital of Republic of Botswana (1967–today).
Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970 CE): War between Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra; a blockade caused a famine, and an estimated 500,000 to two million civilians died.