ABSTRACT

This chapter begins with the assumption that the problems of minorities and the desire to be self-determined in the human society are as old as human society itself. It describes how these problems were handled in precolonial African societies, through the colonial interlude, and in contemporary times. The dynamics of precolonial African geopolitics operated in an intricate socio-cultural framework which was cultivated to ensure the maintenance of harmony and equilibrium within a social unit. Communalism and communal-right concepts are fundamental to understanding African society. The myth of Africa is Africans thinking that at the granting of independence by the metropolitan powers they were finally self-determined and that the nation was born. Self-determination in Africa would include the realization of one's innate strengths and weaknesses, a realization of the internal problems of building the nation, and the ability to fashion workable solutions to the nation's problems.