Redrawing Boundaries

G. Pascal Zachary revisits the continents boundaries :

Jeffrey Herbst has observed in his perceptive study of the relevance of African political boundaries, “States and Power in Africa”: “The traditional view of African boundaries is that they are a critical weakness of African states,” Herbst writes, “because they have remained unchanged despite the fact that the original colonial demarcations were done in a hurried manner that often did not account for local political, sociological, economic, or ethnic factors.” Herbst adds, “Despite spectacular state failures … there has not been a profound debate about alternatives to existing states.”
There ought to be. Isn’t redrawing the African map warranted? The possibility of a new nation, South Sudan, on Uganda’s northern border, suggests that the question of new boundaries for Africa is not purely academic. East Africa is home to other potential reconfigurations. Somalia is effectively three separate countries. Eastern Congo could well hive off into its own nation, or join Rwanda in a confederation – to the delight of its hard-working, talented people who are tired of war and their central government’s invisibility and eager to take advantage of the material endowments of their territory.