Chapter 20

Kwame Nkrumah

(1909-1972) fought to make Ghana (then Gold Coast) independent from Britain. He then became the first president of independent Ghana, which he led from 1957 until he was forced from office during a military coup. He spent the rest of his life in Guinea.

partition

a division into pieces

autocratic

having unlimited power

dalit

member of India's lowest caste

coup d'état

the forcible overthrow of a government

savanna

grassy plain with irregular patterns of rainfall

Mobutu Sese Seko

(1930-1997) was born Joseph-Desire Mobutu. He changed his name after he took control of Congo in 1965 in a military coup. He also renamed the country Zaire. Mobutu ruled Zaire as a dictator until he was overthrown by Laurent Kabila in 1997. He died of cancer a short time later.

Bangladesh

nation east of India that was formerly part of Pakistan

Biafra

region of southeastern Nigeria that launched a failed bid for independence from Nigeria in 1966, resulting in a bloody war

Punjab

state in northwestern India with a largely Sikh population

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was the first prime minister of independent India. Educated in England, Nehru returned to India to practice law. He joined the Indian National Congress, an independence movement led by Mohandas Gandhi. Named Gandhi's successor, Nehru led the Congress until India achieved independence from Great Britain. As prime minister, Nehru focused on industrialization, socialist economic policies, and neutrality in the Cold War.

Jomo Kenyatta

(1894-1978) was a nationalist and leader in the fight for Kenyan independence from Britain. In 1963, he became the country's first prime minister, and in 1964, the country's first president. He was president until his death.

Hutus

an ethnic group that forms the majority in Rwanda and Burundi

Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was a four-term prime minister of India. The daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi entered politics as part of the Congress Party, soon becoming its leader. After her father's death, she was elected India's prime minister. Gandhi stayed in power until 1977, when some of her authoritarian policies led to her popular defeat. In 1980, however, she was reelected to a fourth term as prime minister. After she ordered a military attack on a Sikh holy site, the Golden Temple, Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

Kashmir

a former princely state in the Himalayas claimed by both India and Pakistan, which have fought wars over its control

Islamist

a person who wants government policies to be based on the teachings of Islam

Katanga

a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with rich copper and diamond deposits that tried to gain independence from Congo in 1960

Darfur

a region in western Sudan where ethnic conflict threatened to lead to genocide

Sikh

member of an Indian religious minority

nonalignment

political and diplomatic independence from both Cold War powers

Tutsis

the main ethnic minority group in Rwanda and Burundi

Golden Temple

the most prominent Sikh house of worship