Colonial Boundaries and Pointless Border Conflicts in Contemporary Africa:

Autore: Geoffrey I. Nwaka
In: Africa. N.S. III/1, 2021
doi:10.23744/3846
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Abstract

The article discusses the protracted border conflict between Nigeria and Cameroon over the ownership of the Bakassi Peninsula, in the light of the ongoing debates about African border management, and the impact of the inherited colonial boundaries on contemporary African politics and development. After many years of dispute, the International Court of Justice ruled in 2002 that, based on the colonial agreements which created these boundaries, the Bakassi peninsula, inhabited mainly by hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, belongs to Cameroon. The withdrawal of Nigeria from the area, following the Greentree Agreement, has created a large-scale humanitarian crisis of resettling, and rehabilitating the displaced returnees in the “New Bakassi Local Government Area” created for them in Cross River State of Nigeria. We argue that African countries can avoid needless conflict over these “imported” colonial boundaries if they remove unnecessary border restrictions, and begin to see the borders more as links and bridges for the cooperation and integration of African states and peoples, rather than as barriers and static lines of demarcation on the map.

Keywords: Boundaries, Africa, Colonial Legacy, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bakassi