Right-wing publishing people I knew in the sixties said Africa was purposely divided into countries that crossed tribal areas in order to keep the people fighting with one another and not able to rise up and throw off the colonizers.
They also said Hammarskjold traveled to many new African nations to help them form legitimate governments according to the UN rules so that they could then join the UN to increase the majority of black nations and anti-colonialists. Possibly why he died in the airplane crash.
A friend of mine ignorantly said at a meeting How are they going to unite the whole continent if they can’t even agree among themselves in each country? He was quickly told to shut up and listen instead of talking about things he knew nothing about.
I’m just the messenger. Not sure any of this is true. I never did really study or read much about African history.
Interesting today, as Dinesh says, that they were nationalist movements.
As William F. Buckley, jr. once said: “The Africans will be ready for self-government when they stop eating each other.”
One of the predominant actions of the European Colonists was to stop Muslim Slave trading. South Africa forced Ethiopia (Abyssinia) to outlaw slavery when they briefly occupied that country during WWII.
I doubt country boundaries were set up with any intent to promote tribal violence.
Not sure about Hammerhold, but yes, for sure - the ‘countries’ were intentionally developed to split up tribes, so as to keep the countries from becoming strong. Think Kurds...same deal there.