ABSTRACT
The one notable case in Africa of a recent successful secession was Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia in 1993. A large part of the explanation for this lies in the collapse two years earlier of the Soviet Union, which had secured Ethiopia as a military and political ally beginning in 1977. When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, so did authoritarian Ethiopia.2 But in many African states today, both borders and central governments continue to come under attack. The Darfur conflict in SudanAfrica’s largest country in terms of surface area-has been recognized by the international community as a humanitarian tragedy. Another large country on the continent, the Democratic Republic of Congo (previously Zaire), has also succumbed to the malaise of weak central authority. But a third, South Africa, has surprised observers by constructing a strong state with widespread legitimacy.
