The African Inheritance (Paperback)

Africa is a continent gripped by civil wars, refugees, and widespread famine. A significant number of the causes of these crises are deep rooted, many extending back to the continent's colonial past when Africa was partitioned between European powers - partitions that survived as the former colonies became separate sovereign states. The book discusses pre-colonial Africa, the increasing European interest in the continent, the European partition and the subsequent colonial rule and de-colonization. The text examines the consequences of this inheritance: the large number of very small and weak states; the geographically marginal capital cities; contentious international boundaries; dependant land-locked states; destructive secessionist movements; and African imperialism. Africa has attempted to tackle these problems through abortive political union of states, economic groupings and a re-orientation of infrastructural development away from a colonially-based system. Yet individual development is inhibited by the colonially imposed strait jacket of political geography.