ABSTRACT
The partition of Africa by the European powers to create colonies which subsequently became independent sovereign states caused all manner of problems for those successor states. Some are land-locked, others are of an odd shape, many have ambiguous boundaries, most have badly located capital cities. There are other states in Africa which have faced, or face, the threat of secession from a region, for example, Zambia, Senegal and South Africa. The Barotse province of western Zambia was indirectly ruled by the British as a separate protectorate. The leaders of the Casamance were imprisoned and the southern region’s two provinces were sub-divided into four, a tactic reminiscent of Nigeria and Sudan, to weaken organized opposition in the periphery. The action taken in Dakar decisively headed off the secessionist movement, though discontent still rumbles on. A major oil strike in the Casamance could transform the situation.
