African Liberation Day

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African Liberation Day is celebrated each year on 25th May across most of Africa.

The Conference of Independent African States, the first pan-African Conference on African soil, took place in Accra, Ghana starting on 15th April 1958. African leaders and political activists representing the governments of Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Republic (the federation of Egypt and Syria) and representatives of the National Liberation Front of Algeria and the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon met together and decreed 15th April as "African Freedom Day" to "mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolize the determination of the People of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation."

Another historic meeting took place in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, five years later, on 25th May 1963 (by which time, more than two-thirds of the continent had achieved independence and many other states were about to do so), when the leaders of 32 independent African States met to form the Organization of African Unity (OAU). At this meeting the date of Africa Freedom Day was changed from 15th April to 25th May, the date of formation of the OAU, and the name was changed to African Liberation Day.