The African Union (AU) is a federation consisting of all of Africa's states except Morocco. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa as its headquarters, on June 26, 2001. In July 2004, the African Union's Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was relocated to Midrand, in South Africa, but the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights remained in Addis Ababa. There is a policy in effect to decentralise the African Federation's institutions so that they are shared by all the states
The African Union, not to be confused with the AU Commission, is formed by an Act of Union which aims to transform the African Economic Community, a federated commonwealth, into a state, under established international conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary government, known as the African Union Government, consisting of legislative, judicial and executive organs, and led by the African Union President and Head of State, who is also the President of the Pan African Parliament. A person becomes AU President by being elected to the PAP, and subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP.
President Gertrude Ibengwe Mongella is the Head of State and Chief of Government of the African Union, by virtue of the fact that she is the President of the Pan African Parliament. She was elected by Parliament in its inaugural session in March 2004, for a term of five years. The PAP consists of 265 legislators, five from each constituent state of the African Union. Over 21% of the members are female.[citation needed]
The powers and authority of the President of the African Parliament derive from the Union Act, and the Protocol of the Pan African Parliament, as well as the inheritance of presidential authority stipulated by African treaties and by international treaties, including those subordinating the Secretary General of the OAU Secretariat (AU Commission) to the PAP. The government of the AU consists of all-union (federal), regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution.
Failed state policies, inequitable global trade practices, and the effects of global climate change have resulted in many widespread famines, and significant portions of Africa remain with distribution systems unable to disseminate enough food or water for the population to survive. What had before colonialism been the source for 90% of the world's gold has become the poorest continent on earth, its former riches enjoyed by those on other continents. The spread of disease is also rampant, especially the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the associated acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which has become a deadly pandemic on the continent.
There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations and states. In the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also Second Congo War). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 4 million.[26] Many observers[attribution needed] suggest that the conflict played a role similar to that of World War II, after which European countries integrated their societies in such a way that war between them becomes unthinkable. Political associations such as the African Union offer hope for greater co-operation and peace between the continent's many countries. Extensive human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa, often under the oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often as a side effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Côte d'Ivoire. Economy of Africa
African Economic Community map
African Economic Community map
Due largely to the effects of the slave trade, colonialism, the international trade regime, geopolitics, corrupt governments, despotism, and constant conflict[citation needed], Africa is the world's poorest inhabited continent. According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African nations.[27]
While rapid growth in China and India, and moderate growth in Latin America has lifted millions beyond subsistence living, Africa has gone backwards in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income. This poverty has widespread effects, including lower life expectancy, violence, and instability -- factors intertwined with the continent's poverty.
Some areas, notably Botswana and South Africa, have experienced economic success. The latter has a wealth of natural resources, being the world's leading producers of both gold and diamonds, and a well-established legal system. South Africa also has access to financial capital, numerous markets, skilled labor, and first world infrastructure in much of the country and the opening of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Over a quarter of Botswana's budget (also a major diamond producer) goes toward improving the infrastructure of Gaborone, the nation's capital, largest city, and one of the world's fastest growing cities. Other African countries are making comparable progress, such as Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon and Egypt.
Nigeria sits on one of the largest proven oil reserves in the world and has the highest population among nations in Africa, with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
From 1995 to 2005, economic growth picked up, averaging 5% in 2005. However, some countries experienced much higher growth (10+%) in particular, Angola, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, all three of which have recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves.
Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa experiencing negative economic growth. Culture of Africa
African culture is characterised by a vastly diverse patchwork of social values, ranging from extreme patriarchy to extreme matriarchy, sometimes in tribes existing side by side.
Modern African culture is characterised by conflicted responses to Arab nationalism and European imperialism. Increasingly, beginning in the late 1990s, Africans are reasserting their identity. In North Africa especially the rejection of the label Arab or European has resulted in an upsurge of demands for special protection of indigenous Amazigh languages and culture in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. The emergence of Pan-Africanism since the fall of apartheid has heightened calls for a renewed sense of African identity. In South Africa, intellectuals from settler communities of European descent increasingly identify as African for cultural rather than geographical or racial reasons. Famously, some have undergone ritual ceremonies to become members of the Zulu or other community.
Much of the traditional African cultures have become impoverished as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and neo-colonial regimes. There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalourise African traditional cultures, under such movements as the African Renaissance led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism led by an influential group of scholars including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of Voudoo and other forms of spirituality. In recent years African traditional culture has become synonymous with rural poverty and subsistence farming.
Urban culture in Africa, now associated with Western values, is a great contrast from traditional African urban culture which was once rich and enviable even by modern Western standards. African cities such as Loango, M'banza Congo, Timbuktu, Thebes, Meroe and others had served as the world's most affluent urban and industrial centers, clean, well-laid out, and full of universities, libraries, and temples.
The main and most enduring cultural fault-line in Africa is the divide between traditional pastoralists and agriculturalists. The divide is not, and never was based on economic competition, but rather on the colonial racial policy that identified pastoralists as constituting a different race from agriculturalists, and enforcing a form of apartheid between the two cultures beginning in the 1880s and lasting until the 1960s. Although European colonial powers were largely industrial, many of the administrators and philosophers, whose writings provided rationale for colonialism, applied quasi-scientific eugenics policies and racist politics on Africans in experiments of misguided social engineering.
Most of the racial recategorisation of Africans to fit European stereotypes was contradictory and incoherent. However, because their legalism and laws that emanated from these policies were backed by police force, the scientific establishment and economic power, Africans reacted by either conforming to the new rules, or rejecting them in favour of Pan-Africanism. All across Africa communities and individuals were measured by colonial eugenics boards and reassigned identities and ethnicities based on pseudoscience. The schools taught that in general Africans who resembled Europeans in some physical or cultural aspect were superior to other Africans and deserved more privileges. This caused animosity, incited by other Europeans - socialists and communists - who identified Africans according to dubious classes also modeled on European concerns.
The easiest way to divide Africans was along economic lines. Pastoralists, agriculturalists, hunter-gatherers and Westernised Africans, all formed distinctly identifiable cultures each of which came to play a different and disfiguring role in Africa's modern politics. The Westernised Africans, specifically Senegalese and Sudanese Nubians from urban centers such as Dakar and Khartoum, were used to serve as the bulk of colonial troops against the rural Africans. Pastoralists were radicalised by the wholesale confiscation of grazing lands in favour of plantations. Agriculturalists came into conflict for land and water with pastoralists after the traditional sharing arrangements had been destroyed by colonial policies.
75,000 year old Nassarius shell beads found in Blombos Cave, South Africa
75,000 year old Nassarius shell beads found in Blombos Cave, South Africa
In addition, a growing body of speculative anthropology and race science made false claims about the superiority and inferiority of Africans with different cultural and economic backgrounds. The vast majority of the scholarship on Africa was extraneous and catered to the demand for exotic and outlandish representations of Africa. The enforcement of the government decrees and policies tended to produce effects that confirmed the prejudices of the European colonialists.
African art and architecture reflect the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing examples of art from Africa are 75,000 year old beads made from Nassarius shells that were found in Blombos Cave. The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest structure for 4,000 years until the completion of Lincoln Cathedral around 1300. The Ethiopian complex of monolithic churches at Lalibela, of which the Church of St. George is representative, is regarded as another marvel of engineering==================
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Music
Afro Beat Music of Africa
The music of Africa is one of its most dynamic art forms. Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular west Africa, was transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern samba, blues, jazz, reggae, rap, and rock and roll. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Recent developments include the emergence of African hip hop, in particular a form from Senegal blended with traditional mbalax, and Kwaito, a South African variant of house music. Afrikaans music, also found in South Africa, is idiosyncratic being composed mostly of traditional Boer music, while more recent immigrant communities have introduced the music of their homes to the continent.
Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions and they are distinct from the music and dance styles of North Africa and Southern Africa. Arab influences are visible in North African music and dance and in Southern Africa western influences are apparent due to colonization.
Many African languages are tone languages, in which pitch level determines the meaning. This also finds expression in African musical melodies and rhythms. A variety of musical instruments are used, including drums (most widely used), bells, musical bow, lute, flute, and trumpet.
African dances are important mode of communication and dancers use gestures, masks, costumes, body painting and a number of visual devices. With urbanisation and modernisation, modern African dance and music exhibit influences assimilated from several other cultures.
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News from Africa
04/05/2007 13:17 ADDIS ABABA, May 4 (AFP)
AU summit to focus on 'United States of Africa' plan
African leaders are to meet in Ghana for an African Union summit at the end of next month to discuss ways of working towards a "United States of Africa", the bloc said in a statement Friday.
The summit, from June 25 to July 3, will be devoted to a "grand debate on the union government," the statement said.
"The ultimate goal of the African Union is full political and economic integration leading to the United States of Africa," it said.
The goal of political and economic integration of African countries has existed since the AU began in 2002, but the issue divides the body's 53 members.
The meeting will also see the appointment of new AU commissioners and a new commission president to replace Alpha Oumar Konare who has announced he will step down.
It will also discuss regional conflicts, notably in Darfur and Somalia, where the pan-African body has deployed a vanguard force of around 1,500 Ugandan peacekeepers.
Ghana currently holds the bloc's rotating leadership. President John Kufuor was elected its chairman during a summit in January after member states rejected Sudan's bid for the chair.
The AU, which replaced the Organisation of African Unity in 2002, comprises 53 African territories and aims to promote political, social and economic development as well as security on the continent.
AU summit to focus on 'United States of Africa' plan African leaders are to meet in Ghana for an African Union summit at the end of next month to discuss ways of working towards a "United States of Africa", the bloc said in a statement Friday. The summit, from June 25 to July 3, will be devoted to a "grand debate on the union government," the statement said. "The ultimate goal of the African Union is full political and economic integration leading to the United States of Africa," it said. The goal of political and economic integration of African countries has existed since the AU began in 2002, but the issue divides the body's 53 members.
The meeting will also see the appointment of new AU commissioners and a new commission president to replace Alpha Oumar Konare who has announced he will step down. It will also discuss regional conflicts, notably in Darfur and Somalia, where the pan-African body has deployed a vanguard force of around 1,500 Ugandan peacekeepers. Ghana currently holds the bloc's rotating leadership.
.........Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 mi²) including adjacent islands, it covers 6.0% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.[1] With more than 900,000,000 people (as of 2005)[2] in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. There are 46 countries including Madagascar, and 53 including all the island groups.
Africa, especially central eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae tree, as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest Hominids, as well as later ones that have been dated to around 7 million years ago including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Africanus, Homo Erectus, with the earliest humans being dated to ca. 200,000 years ago, according to this view.
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular precipitation and irrigation as well as glaciers or mountain aquifer systems, there is no natural moderating effect on the climate except near the coasts.Etymology
Afri was the name of several peoples who dwelt in North Africa near the provincial capital, Carthage. The Roman suffix "-ca" denotes "country or land".[3]
Other etymologies that have been postulated for the ancient name 'Africa':
* the Latin word aprica, meaning "sunny";
* the Greek word aphrike, meaning "without cold."
This was proposed by historian Leo Africanus (1488-1554), who suggested the Greek word phrike (f????, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the privative prefix "a-", thus indicating a land free of cold and horror.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Africa
A composite satellite image of Africa
Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the main mass of the Earth's exposed surface. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 163 km (101 miles) wide.[4] (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.[2][3]) From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles);[5] from Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 miles).[6] The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,010,000 square miles) — about a third of the surface of Africa — has a coastline of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).[6]
Africa's largest country is Sudan, and its smallest country is the Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.[7] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.
By the 1st millennium BC ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly began spreading across the Sahara into the northern parts of sub-saharan Africa[17] and by 500 BC metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa, possibly after being introduced by the Carthaginians. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in areas of East and West Africa, though other regions didn't begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Some copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia have been excavated in West Africa dating from around 500 BC, suggesting that trade networks had been established by this time.[14]
Early civilisations and trade
About 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic-ruled civilisation of Ancient Egypt, which continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.[18][19] Prominent civilisations at different times include Carthage, the Kingdom of Aksum, the Nubian kingdoms, the empires of the Sahel (Kanem-Bornu, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai), Great Zimbabwe, and the Kongo.[20][21]
After the Sahara had become a desert it did not present an impenetrable barrier for travellers between north and south. Even prior to the introduction of the camel[22] the use of oxen for desert crossing was common, and trade routes followed oases that were strung across the desert. The camel was first brought to Egypt by the Persians after 525 BC, although large herds did not become common enough in North Africa to establish the trans-Saharan trade until the eighth century AD.[23] The Sanhaja Berbers were the first to exploit this.
Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities [4] characterised by different sorts of political organisation and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu-speaking people of central and southern Africa and heavily-structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa, the Sahelian Kingdoms, and autonomous city-states such as the Swahili coastal trading towns of the East African coast, whose trade network extended as far as China.
In 1418, the fifth expedition by Chinese admiral Zheng He reached Africa's east coast. The two later Zheng He voyages, the last in 1432, also sailed to East Africa. The Chinese travelled at least as far as Malindi in Kenya. In 1482, the Portuguese established the first of many trading stations along the coast of Ghana at Elmina. The chief commodities dealt in were slaves, gold, ivory and spices. The European discovery of the Americas in 1492 was followed by a great development of the slave trade, which, before the Portuguese era, had been an overland trade almost exclusively, and never confined to any one continent.[24]
In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. The largest powers of West Africa: the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire, adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.[25]
Pre-colonial exploration
In the mid-nineteenth century, European explorers became interested in exploring the heart of the continent and opening the area for trade, mining and other commercial exploitation. In addition, there was a desire to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. The central area of Africa was still largely unknown to Europeans at this time. David Livingstone explored the continent between 1852 and his death in 1873; amongst other claims to fame, he was the first European to see the Victoria Falls. A prime goal for explorers was to locate the source of the River Nile. Expeditions by Burton and Speke (1857-1858) and Speke and Grant (1863) located Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. The latter was eventually proven as the main source of the Nile. With subsequent expeditions by Baker and Stanley, Africa was well explored by the end of the century and this was to lead the way for the colonization which followed.
ITS AMAZING WHEN STRANGERS BECOME FRIENDS,BUT ITS SAD WHEN FRIENDS BECOME STRANGERS...I NEVER WANT 2 LOSE U AS A FRIEND...SEND THIS 2 ALL UR FRIENDS...INCLUDING ME(IF U DON'T WANT 2 LOSE ME!) ************************************** I MET U AS A STRANGER I TOOK U AS FRIEND I HOPE WE MEET IN HEAVEN WHERE FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS SEND IT 2 UR FRIENDS IF U GET 5 BACK UR A OK FRIEND IF U GET 10 BACK UR A GREAT FRIEND IF U GET 15 BACK UR A AWESOME FRIEND IF U GET 20 BACK UR DA BEST IN DA WORLD
xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥
send this to 10 people you just LOVE to death; as a friend or more. and see many you get back.... ♥ 1- means no one knows who you are 2- means people like you a lil bit 3- means people like you 4- people love you
"I just remembered the day that God took me to Calvary and had me begging to look at life, people, places and things, through the eyes of Calvary's Cross. GOD was so gracious to let me see what CHRIST was seeing through the eyes of The Father. He saw VALUE, He seen PURPOSE, He seen FAITH, He seen HOPE, He seen REDEMPTION, He seen TENACITY, He seen ENDURANCE, He saw VICTORY, He seen LOVE, He seen Unity, He seen Equality, He seen Oneness, He seen RICHES, He seen WORTH, He seen His ANOINTING, HE seen All HIS Children Living, Working and Supporting Each other in HIS Blessed Kingdom, Blacks, Whites, Yellows, Reds, Browns, Mix skin colors, Jews, Gentiles, Believers, Christians, Saints and when He was hanging on the cross, He was looking at you and me with HIS Father's Eyes and Heart.I am always praying for God's people first and then asking The Holy Spirit to bring souls into Christ loving Kingdom..Please keep me and this ministry in your heart prayers, love your Brother in Christ The Savior.
"ONE by ONE we are making Christ Jesus Love, Unity and Equality A Reality In The Body Of Our Lord Jesus Christ!!"
Words mean nothing unless we humble ourselves before God, with a hunger for HIM alone. What God has put into our heart is what we need to SEE and KNOW, as our spirit pants for Jesus; (predestined according to the purpose of Him) He builds us, with a longing to worship HIM, as we grow more into the fullness of HIM in us.
For Jesus Christ is our peace, who has made both One, and has broken down the middle wall of Separation, Having Abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, So as to Create in Himself ( Jesus Christ ) One New Man from the two, thus making peace.
Believers & Christians Jews Are ONE in Jesus Christ!
Ephesians 2:14-15
"ONE by ONE we are making Christ Jesus Love, Unity and Equality A Reality In The Body Of Our Lord Jesus Christ!!"
Great Words To Think Over!
The most useless thing to do is....
...............Worry
The greatest Joy in ............... ......Giving
The greatest loss is................Loss of self-for Jesus Christ
The most satisfying work is...............Helping others
The ugliest personality trait is flesh.............Selfishness
The most endangered species Kingdom people.........Dedicated leaders to Christ and His Work!
Our greatest natural resource is ...............God's Believers, Christians, Saints, Souls
The greatest "shot in the arm"..........Encouragement in The Holy Spirit!
The greatest problem to overcome is.................Self and the flesh!
Most effective sleeping pill.... ....Peace of mind in Jesus Christ
The most crippling failure disease... .....Excuses while taking our eyes off of The CROSS of Christ and His Saving Grace!
The most powerful force in life is..................God's Love
The most dangerous pariah..................A gossiper and our big mouth on God's children!!!
The world's most incredible computer is... .....The brain in The Holy Spirit Power!
The worst things to be without...................Faith, Hope, and Love
The deadliest weapon.......................The tongue, our flesh and no faith in God!
The most power-filled words..............."I Can do all things in Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord!
The greatest asset...... .....Jesus Christ God's Blessed Son!
It is Your Love O. Lord that sustains us. Your faithfulness that Guides us weather we fall you lift us up for we really want to please you our Lord and Amazing Awesome Savior Jesus Christ, We are under the shadow of Your Wings. For Christ Jesus you are The Fountain in our hearts and the Light unto our path. Lead us, guide us, and sustain us in Your pure Love. Your children in Jesus, Thank You Jesus For making us One in our Father's Kingdom...John 10:16
Colonialism had a destabilising effect on a number of ethnic groups that is still being felt in African politics. Before European influence, national borders were not much of a concern, with Africans generally following the practice of other areas of the world, such as the Arabian Peninsula, where a group's territory was congruent with its military or trade influence. The European insistence of drawing borders around territories to isolate them from those of other colonial powers often had the effect of separating otherwise contiguous political groups, or forcing traditional enemies to live side by side with no buffer between them. For example, although the Congo River appears to be a natural geographic boundary, there were groups that otherwise shared a language, culture or other similarity living on both sides. The division of the land between Belgium and France along the river isolated these groups from each other. Those who lived in Saharan or Sub-Saharan Africa and traded across the continent for centuries often found themselves crossing borders that existed only on European maps.
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