Separatyzmy w stosunkach międzynarodowych w Afryce

Abstract

SEPARATISMS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN AFRICA

Despite the acceptance by African states of the principle of respect for post‑colonial borders (adopted at the Organisation of African Unity in 1964), the post-colonial period saw more than a dozen cases of separatist movements forming in Africa, seeking to create new states. In two cases, this resulted in a real change of borders – in 1993, Eritrea was created through secession from Ethiopia, and in 2011, the southern provinces of Sudan proclaimed the creation of South Sudan. Effectively, though without international legal recognition, there is Somaliland, which in 1991 proclaimed independence in the northern part of Somalia. In addition, separatist movements have occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Katanga and Kasai), Nigeria (Biafra), Tanzania (Zanzibar), Cameroon (Ambazonia), Angola (Cabinda), Senegal (Casamance), Mali (Azawad). Among the causes of each of Africa’s separatisms is a confluence of local factors of a political, ethnic or economic nature. Multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism (resulting from the artificial nature of borders), low levels of socioeconomic development and dysfunctional states generate contradictions, leading to disturbances in the stability of individual countries, and their manifestation sometimes becomes the aspirations of certain social groups to achieve – in the absence of states effectively performing their functions – political independence.