Attention to Africa increased especially at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, when most African countries ended their colonial regimes and established their own independent states. In the late 1950s, the Department of Africa was established in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in the early 1960s, the Sector of Africa in the Central Committee of the CPSU. Africa has become a focus of attention and activity of other administrative institutions and public organizations. The Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with each of the new African states, and embassies were opened in each of them. In the autumn of 1956, the Department of Africa was established at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences.

The history of the Institute begins with the Decree of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the Organization of the Institute of Africa in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR" dated July 2, 1959, signed by N. S. Khrushchev himself.

On February 2, 1960, all employees of the Department of Africa of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR were transferred to the Institute of Africa of the USSR. In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Institute of Africa, it is important to remember the history of its creation. The article describes the difficulties experienced by the Institute of Africa during its creation and in the first years of its existence; how decisions about its creation were made and the changes they went through; how a newly established Institute was transferred from one Department of the Academy of Sciences to another; how the management of the Institute was changed; how all this created certain difficulties within the staff of the Institute itself.