Colonial boundaries and the challenges of transition to multi party democracy in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

At independence, African countries south of the Sahara were confronted with the problem of national integration. This problem was borne out of the partition of the continent in a manner that brought different ethnic groups together to form artificially created states. This paper argues that the difficulties most African countries faced during the wholesale transition to multi-party rule in the 1990s were traceable to the ethnic diversities of the states. A sense of shared nationality, a pre-requisite for national integration and unity, was weak or was yet to be forged in most countries. This weakness had negative implications for multi-party democracy in Africa, for political pluralism stirred up ethnic conflicts/upheavals which tore countries apart. Pro-democracy movements during the transitional period emboldened the zeal of component ethnic groups to assert their identities on the political scene.