Located in West Africa, Senegal was colonized during the 15th century by Europeans powers; mainly Portuguese, French, Dutch and British. In 1677 French colonizers managed to impose their power and gained control over Senegal. In 1850´s the French empire began invading the Senegalese mainland until native resistance to the French expansion, led by several Senegalese rulers, resulted in the Battle of Logandème, won by the French.

On the 4th of April of 1960, Senegal and the French Sudan merged to become the Mali Federation that became fully independent on the 20th of June of that same year. Two months later the Federation dissolved and Senegal became its own country. Léopold Sédar Senghor was the first president of independent Senegal.

Ghana was the first colonial African country to declare its independence, fact that occurred on the 6th of March of 1957. The independence movement kicked off in 1947 when The Big Six: Kwame Nkrumah, Danquah, William Ofori Atta, Ebenezer Ako Adjei, Emmanuel Odarkwei Obetsebi Lamptey and Edward Akufo-Addo) formed the United Gold Coast Convection which was exploring ways to Independence. Even though the colonial government arrested them, Nkrumah succeed and after achieving Ghana´s Independence he declared himself president-for-life in 1960, and four years later he even banned all opposition parties.

In 1966 Nkrumah was deposed by a military coup and finally died in exile in Rumania. Ghana then suffered a very unstable political period with coup after coup until 1992 when a new Constitution was declared restoring the multi-party system.