Understanding Postcolonial African Frontiers: History, Theory, Policy and Practice

Abstract

Not by natural selection, but through human endeavors, Africa is a continent where states have collapsed (Zartman 1995), internecine wars have been fought (see Nhema and Zeleza 2008a; Zack-Williams, Frost and Thomson 2002; Kaplan 1994 ), inter-generational and inter-community/country relationships have broken, people's dignities and identities have, and are still being violated through politically motivated and culturally induced violence in peace and in wartimes (Turshen and Twagiramariya 1998; Meintjes et al. 2001 ). However, it has been people's individual and collective desires for peace and progress that have enabled them to endeavor to rebuild their lives, amid the depravity that surrounds them (Doyle and Sambanis 2006). In the processes of rebuilding their lives and communities, and depending on their collective or individual circumstances, people have had to give up some of their beliefs and practices that were a priori aiding them to politically and socially navigate the continent's perilous environment. Traditions have to be compromised, social and political systems modified for the assimilation of new thought processes, even if they run contrary to their long-held beliefs (Mudimbe 1994; Mudimbe 1988); and people's national identities have to be adjusted to give meaning to the concepts of westernization and modernization, and the corresponding geo-political processes that always accompany the international community's conflict management and post-conflict national reconstruction and recovery policies in Africa (Nhema and Zeleza 2008b ).