Modern political boundaries

In the great majority of cases, boundaries of African states do not correspond to the limits of pre-colonial political entities or ethnic areas. These boundaries reflect rather the deftness or the military strength of colonial powers at the time of the division of the African continent at the end of the 19 th century, and the results of haggling among the victor countries of both world wars.

After African countries proclaimed their independence, there were many intense discussions: should Africans preserve the artificial boundaries imposed by the colonizers, or should they be modified, in a way that the lands of one ethnic group may not be crosscut by state boundaries? The life has shown that romantic dreaming of reunification of brothers speaking one language results in bloody cataclysms, and a peaceful coexistence of states is impossible without the principle of respect of the state boundaries inherited from the colonial times.

Museum of genocide. In July 1994, more than one million  people were killed in Rwanda. Rwanda, Kigali. Ye. V. Perehvalskaya. 2004