Review: Africa: Partitioned Africans, African Regional Organizatons
| Date | 01 December 1986 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208604100411 |
| Author | Martin Ira Glassner |
| Published date | 01 December 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
886
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
external
actors,
notably
transnational
corporations
and
the
former
metropoles.
The
Lom6 link
with
the
European
Communities
is
viewed
with
particular
suspicion
as 'a
recipe
for
perpetual
underdevelopment'
(p
133).
At
the
same
time,
the
author
acknowledges
and
deplores the
potency
of
numerous
internal
obstacles
to
unity
and development.
Among
these
are
endemic
political
instability,
the
Nigerian
'elephant
in
the
grass'
(p
147),
the
elusiveness
of
the
goal
of
freedom
of
move-
ment
-
'the
Community's greatest
gift'
(p
153)
-
and
the
relatively
greater
success
of
the
Communaut6
6conomique
de
l'Afrique
de
l'Ouest
(CEAO)
comprised
of
six
francophone
members
of
ECOWAS.
Collec-
tively,
these
constraints
combine
to
undermine
a
sense
of
true
com-
munity
and
the
belief
that
'we
are
all
West
Africans'
(p
206).
An
appendix
reproduces
the text
of
the
ECOWAS
treaty
of
1975
(but not
the subsequent
protocols),
the
statistics
cited
are
basically
for
the
year
1982,
and
the
index
is
inadequate
for
a
book
of
this
importance.
Douglas
G.
Anglin/Carleton
University
PARTITIONED
AFRICANS
Ethnic
relations
across
Africa's
international
boundaries,
1884-1984
Edited
by
A.I.
Asiwaju
New
York:
St
Martin's
Press,
1985,
xii,
275pp,
us$29.95
AFRICAN
REGIONAL
ORGANIZATONS
Edited
by
Domenico
Mazzeo
New
York:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1984,
x,
265pp,
us$42.
5o
The
charter
of
the
Organization
of
African
Unity
includes
in
article
III
a
commitment
to
a
policy
of
'respect
for
the
sovereignty
and
ter-
ritorial integrity
of
each state
and
for
its
inalienable
right
to
inde-
pendent
existence.'
African
states
thus
pledged
themselves
to
preserve
the
boundaries
imposed
by
the
colonial
powers,
much
as
Latin
Amer-
ican
states
did
during
their
wars
of
independence.
Both
policies
were
based
on
the
Roman
law
principle
of
uti
posseditis
juris
and
had
the
same
objective:
to
remove
a
likely
source
of
friction
among
new
coun-
tries
that
were facing long
and
difficult
struggles
to
establish
and
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