The national liberation movements in Africa took two courses, i.e., violent and non-violent. In West Africa, political independence was achieved with relative ease. The main possible reason for this was that West Africa had no significant number of white settlers. Moreover, the nationalist movements in West Africa had a long history and relatively better experience that could enable them to provide leadership and facilitate the struggle for independence. Nationalist agitation in British West Africa was especially strong in the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeria. In these two countries, the nationalist struggle was led by two extremely capable and competent leaders, namely: Nnamdi Azikwe of Nigeria and Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast. Both were educated in the USA and returned to their countries in the 1930s and 1940s respectively.

After the end of the Second World War, France came to realize the need to grant more political and civil rights to its colonial peoples of French West Africa. In the beginning, the French government was not ready to grant full independence to its colonies in Africa. It rather wanted to give the colonies only rights as part of an association with France itself. Accordingly, France introduced reforms and allowed each colony in French West Africa, to elect a territorial assembly. Compared with the pre-war situation in the French colonies, this was significant progress.

In 1958, General Charles de Gaulle became French President, and a new French constitution was issued in the same year. In the new constitution, Charles de Gaulle intended to transform the French Union into a French Community. It was planned that each colony in French West Africa would hold a referendum on the new constitution. They were to choose between voting “Yes” and becoming autonomous republics within the French Community or voting “No” and becoming immediately independent outside the French Community. According to de Gaulle, those who choose “No” would lose French economic and technical assistance.