The Scramble for Africa: Inherited Political Boundaries

THE INHERITED POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY of Africa is as great an impediment to independent development as her colonially based economies and political structures. The colonial political geography derives from the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, which laid down the rules for the European partition of the continent. What were drawn as colonial boundaries have survived the transition from colonies to independent states and, more surprisingly, 25 years of African independence. The boundaries themselves are only one aspect of Africa's inherited political geography. African states are territorially identical to the European colonies they replaced, for all their grotesque shapes and varied sizes. European colonialism lumped together peoples of diverse cultures and traditions, sometimes leading to secessionist movements and civil war. The creation of long and narrow states such as The Gambia and Togo meant that development concentrated on the short sea coast remote from up-country regions. Many African states are too small to make viable economic markets and are below the threshold of any possible industrialization. Others are so large and diverse that effective government becomes difficult. There are 14 landlocked states in Africa, more than in the rest of the world put together. They all face chronic problems of access varying according to local circumstance. Colonial capital cities located on coastal peripheries have become national capitals of independent states. Despite the obvious drawbacks of such an anomalous and anachronistic geographical framework, opportunities to change it have largely been ignored in post-independence Africa. Financial cost, vested interests, inertia and lack of perception have been inhibiting factors. The political geography of colonial Africa had a rationale rooted in colonialism itself but each aspect of it now presents modern Africa with problems which, taken in conjunction with inherited economic and political difficulties, severely impede progress towards complete independence. This lecture concentrates on international boundaries, arguably the fundamental ingredient in Africa's political geography. Boundaries collectively divide the continent into its many states and individually divide people. They are a source of international conflict and affect the spatial pattern of economic development.