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The colonial rule in Africa came to an end on March 21, 1990, after South Africa formally relinquished control over Namibia. Three decades later, post-colonial Africa still grapples with national identity crises leading to bloody self-determination agitations, which have become omnipresent and causing fragmentations and divisions of many countries, such as Sudan-South Sudan separation and Ethiopia-Eritrea division.
Also, in recent times, the ongoing struggles in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Ethiopia are indications that self-determination movements will always be a recurring issue on the continent, sadly, amidst untold economic and humanitarian ramifications. The devastating downturns of these movements are largely responsible for Africa’s social and economic retardation and scarce tranquillity.
There are 54 countries in Africa, and at least 25 have experienced active separatist movements. One of the major underlying factors is the forceful amalgamations by colonial masters many decades back. Most African nations were built on shaky and crooked foundations to satisfy western powers’ economic gain and colonial convenience. The indigenous people were not given a chance to decide their co-existence.
In Nigeria, for instance, the revenue-prosperous south was merged with the revenue backward north in 1914 just so the former could sustain the latter. In his letter to the British government before the merger, the governor of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, Lord Frederick Lugard, wrote:
“What we often call the Northern Protectorate of Nigeria today can be better described as the poor husband whilst its southern counterpart can be fairly described as the rich wife or the woman of substance and means. A forced union of marriage between the two will undoubtedly result in peace, prosperity, and marital bliss for both husband and wife for many years to come. It is my prayer that that union will last forever”.
Sadly, Lugard’s calculation 107 years ago has left Nigeria in a serious state of a national identity crisis, where many regions fight to opt-out as they lack a sense of belonging in the forced contraption. The daily emancipation struggles the country currently faces can be traced to this single action. It heralded one of the bloodiest civil wars on the continent between the separatist Biafra Army led by Lt Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu and the federal military government. The war lasted from 1967-1970, with an estimated 500,000 to 2 million deaths. Several decades after the war, the underlying causes remain unresolved, and the fight against marginalization and inequalities persist.
Like never before, Nigeria is faced with freedom struggles from multiple fronts, especially from the south. This ranges from the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) fighting for a sovereign Igbo nation to Odua nationalists clamouring for an independent Yoruba nation and some other regions in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
This is so because northern and southern Nigeria share contrasting political and religious ideologies, which date back before the emergence of the British government in the country. Therefore, joining the two together in the first place should have aroused misgivings. The north is predominantly a Muslim zone that boasted of two Islamic empires – the Sokoto Caliphate and Bornu Empire, as far back as the eighteenth century. Its political solidarity and social leanings were toward the wider Islamic World and the Middle East. On the other hand, the south drew its socio-political influence from traditional African and western values. The sociocultural and political views remain the same for both to date. The north, for instance, still practices sharia as its main body of civil and criminal law, despite Nigeria being a secular nation. As such, the long-existing mutual suspicion and distrust between them continue to undermine the country’s development and peace.
Nigeria’s neighbour, Cameroon, is also facing a similar quagmire between the Anglophone and Francophone regions which have been at loggerheads since the 1961 amalgamation. The decades of mutual suspicions culminated into the ongoing Ambazonia War as the English-speaking regions fight for self-determination. The Anglophone regions are under-represented in the West African country, which has been ruled by Francophone leaders since amalgamation, and most of the government’s policies are said to be unfavourable to them. The crisis, which started as a low-scale insurgency, has spread to most parts of Anglophone regions and is now a global concern as the government applies aggressive measures to stop the agitators.
Self-determination struggles across the continent could also be linked to the unbalanced political system and selfishness of Africa’s power-drunk political elites. This could be the case in Ethiopia which is currently experiencing civil war between the Tigray region and the central government. The year-long war has caused tens of thousands of deaths, including children who died of starvation. The seeming supremacy battle between the regional government and the central authority has now tilted towards another separatist struggle as the Tigray region calls for secession from Ethiopia. This can best be described as a taste of Deja-vu, considering the country experienced the Eritrea breakup in a similar fashion just three decades ago.
The ongoing political tussle in the only uncolonized African nation is a clear reflection of the fault-lines in political structures across the continent where politics is viewed and approached from ethnoreligious sentiments rather than leadership competence and merits.
The lopsidedness in many African countries ‘political setup ensures that some regions lord over the others. For example, since French Cameroon and British Southern Cameroon were merged, only Francophone leaders have led the country. The incumbent, President Paul Biya, is Africa’s oldest and second longest-serving leader and has been in power for more than 38 years.
It is difficult to ascertain the exact economic and human costs of these separatist movements, and other related conflicts due to many underestimated and unreported cases. However, given the conflict trends in past decades, the continent has suffered enough deaths, forceful displacements, refugee crises, and other humanitarian effects worth prompting its political leaders to re-strategize their approach to governance.
A Pew Research report reveals an influx of asylum-seeking Africans in Europe and permanent resident applicants and refugees in the United States. War-related conflicts are one of the identified causes for this increasing influx, forcing many young Africans to journey through unconventional routes such as the Mediterranean Sea on boats just to escape the unpredictable humanitarian ramifications and harsh living conditions emanating from the recurring conflicts.
Many political observers have suggested peaceful resolutions such as restructuring and referendums to give the masses the chance to decide their nationhood. Unfortunately, most African leaders favour the use of force in quenching such movements, as they insist on the non-negotiability stance of their countries. The implication of this is that they could be postponing the doomsday.
The faulty foundations upon which most African countries were built make their disintegration seem eminent. The good news, however, is that this does not have to be through war and bloodshed as there are various mechanisms for peaceful conflicts resolutions. It is time African leaders reviewed the constitutions and demonstrated political will that portrays fairness and equity, and most importantly, rights to self-determination.
Olusegun Akinfenwa is a correspondent for Immigration Advice Service, a law firm based in the UK and operating globally. Most of his work revolves around spreading awareness about the harsh socio-political realities confronting African society, with a view to bringing lasting solutions to them.
