Ten years ago, in the space of eight months, between January 1 and August 17, 1960, sixteen independent states emerged in Africa. No previous period of history had seen such an upsurge of new sovereignty. For Americans, with their habitually peripheral and fantasy-laden view of the so-called Dark Continent, the emergence of states with such exotic names as Mali, the Ivory Coast, Chad, and Nigeria was regarded with a puzzlement and imperfect understanding which has prevailed for a decade. Vast tracks of desert, savannah, and rain-forest became states equal, in theory at least, with the, United States. France, and England.