Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, January 10, 2011

Aftereffects of imperialsim

Sunday's (9 January 2011) New York Times published an article about one of the long-term results of European imperialism in Africa. The focus of the article was on Sudan and the vote in the south of Sudan on the issue of secession.

However, the article does a good job of describing some of the results of the boundaries drawn by Europeans, especially the decisions made at the Berlin Conference in 1884. There's an accompanying map of the continent illustrating political and ethnic boundaries. Unfortunately, at least on my computer, the colors used to show ethnic boundaries are quite difficult to use. Even without details, you and your students can see the results of British-French efforts at drawing boundaries for Nigeria.

In Sudan, a Colonial Curse Comes Up for a Vote

More than any other continent, Africa is wracked by separatists. There are rebels on the Atlantic and on the Red Sea. There are clearly defined liberation movements and rudderless, murderous groups known principally for their cruelty or greed. But these rebels share at least one thing: they direct their fire against weak states struggling to hold together disparate populations within boundaries drawn by 19th-century white colonialists.

That history is a prime reason that Africa remains, to a striking degree, a continent of failed or failing states…

Even though many of those frontiers carelessly sliced through rivers, lakes, mountains and ethnic groups, few of the leaders who shepherded Africa to independence a half-century ago wanted to tinker, because redrawing the map could be endless and contested. So, on May 25, 1963, when the Organization of African Unity was formed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it immediately recognized the colonial-era borders…

See the map: A Continent Carved Up, Ignoring Who Lives Where

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Labels: cleavages, history, Nigeria, politics