Decolonizing “Arbitrary” Borders and Tribes

This chapter decolonizes the popular notion that Africa’s borders have been arbitrarily drawn by Europeans at the Scramble for Africa 1884–1885. Equally, the chapter proves map by map that European borders have been arbitrarily drawn too, therefore, Africa’s borders should not be problematized unnecessarily. This chapter also discusses unsuccessful attempts by constructivist authors who have argued spuriously that African tribes or ethnic groups were formed by the colonial period or invented by the colonial state. The chapter then discusses colonial borders in Africa and the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which took effect from 2021 to ensure a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of businesspersons and investments fostered by non-tariff barriers such as border posts. Arbitrary boundaries and landlocked countries have been problematized among Africa’s colonial legacies, particularly by Alex Thomson’s An Introduction to African Politics. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 accepted the borders created by the Partition of Africa, principally to avoid the risk of potential wars among African states if their ethnonational identities were to evolve without respect to the borders. Other scholars such as Mamdani have argued that “all boundaries are artificial; none are natural”, and in this respect, European borders are equally arbitrary, having undergone several revisions by respective power brokers over the course of at least four successive milestones or events in European history: (a) Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 after the 30 Years’ War; (b) Congress of Vienna in 1815; (c) Treaty of Versailles in 1919 after WWI; (d) and the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947 signed between Western allies and the Soviet Union after WWII. Africa’s current borders were agreed to stay fixed in 1963 just as Europe’s were agreed to stay fixed in 1947. The chapter illustrates with relevant European maps showing arbitrary border revisions made by the respective power brokers at each of the four European milestones listed. A comparison of the current political map of Europe and the corresponding ethnolinguistic map of Europe shows clearly that the languages and people-groups of Europe do not fit neatly into the current state boundaries. This buttresses the point that European borders have been arbitrarily drawn and revised over the decades by successive post-war agreements and political considerations which ensued at the time of drawing or agreeing those borders. The current European political borders do not mirror Europe’s languages and ethnic distribution, just as Western authors are quick to point out that Africa’s borders do not mirror its languages and ethnic distribution. The chapter equally illustrated with maps of Africa at four key milestones: (a) 1885 at the Scramble for Africa; (b) 1914 at the beginning of WWI; (c) 1939 at the beginning of WWII; (d) 1964 after the OAU-agreed borders of 1963. A comparison of the current political map of Africa and the ethnolinguistic map of Africa shows clearly that the languages and people-groups of Africa do not fit neatly into Africa’s current state boundaries, just like Europe’s. Furthermore, both continents have landlocked countries, and this chapter sheds light on how African states demonstrated best practice by collaborating among coastal and landlocked states even before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) took effect in 1982 to serve as a guide for the rest of the globe. The chapter discusses how Africa set the pace for UNCLOS, and the crucial contributions Africa made in bringing about UNCLOS. The chapter further debates the issue of borders and explores to what extent AfCFTA’s economic and political integration impacts on Africa’s current borders in interesting ways.