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| d. West Central Africa |
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(See Dec)| |
| 1945–57 |
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| Rapid economic growth in Congo was especially stimulated by the mining of copper and other minerals. | 1 |
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| 1948 |
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| Colonato, a form of state encouragement for “progressive” African farmers, was introduced in Angola. | 2 |
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| 1949 |
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| The University of Louvanium was established by decree. The first students were admitted to only a preuniversity course in 1954. | 3 |
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| 1949–50 |
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| Beginning of the Movement of Young Intellectuals in Angola, founded by Viriato da Cruz. This group proclaimed the importance of Angolan culture. | 4 |
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| 1949–57 |
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| Belgium began to plan for gradual decolonization of Congo through ten-year plans for economic development, aided by the commodity boom. The first plan was introduced in 1949. The pace of reform, however, remained very slow, and was overtaken by emerging nationalist movements. | 5 |
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| 1950 |
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| The Nationalist Alliance de Bakongo (ABAKO) was founded. | 6 |
| Sixty percent of the doctors in the Cameroon were Africans. The Portuguese program of assimilating “Westernized” Africans into Portuguese citizenship proved a failure. Out of a population of 3 million, only 30,000 fit the Portuguese category of assimilado, which entitled them to escape the harsh labor and legal regime for Africans. | 7 |
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| 1951, Dec |
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| Municipal elections were held in the Belgian Congo; Joseph Kasavubu's ABAKO won in Kinshasa. | 8 |
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| 1953 |
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| The Kitawala Movement, originally based on an Africanized version of the apocalyptic doctrine of the American Watch Tower movement, spread in the lower Congo. | 9 |
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| 1954 |
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| A university was established at Elisabethville. | 10 |
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| 1954–55 |
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| A wave of strikes broke out in Cameroon. | 11 |
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| 1955 |
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| Oil was discovered near Luanda. | 12 |
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