ABSTRACT
This chapter interrogates the connections between nationalism, separatism and conflicts on the one hand and how these concepts affect the idea of Pan-African integration. Conventional discourse of Pan-Africanism and African integration have focused on liberation movements and unity of Africa. In the spirit of Pan-Africanism, African regional and sub-regional bodies such as the African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and East African Community (EAC) continue to strive to map out a continental and sub-regional coordinated response to new forms of challenges that have hindered African solutions to African problems. Integration can be categorised into political integration and social integration. Africa is a continent of more than a thousand ethnic groups and languages lumped together by colonial intervention. In 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was caught up in a deadly and bloodletting separatist conflict shortly after its political independence from the Belgians.
