Africa's Borders suck, Let's fix them 

ok

I believe in self-determination as a principle, but personally I tend to oppose seperatism. There are exceptions, but I usually don't agree with it. I think Africa should at least discuss a reconsideration of some of the borders. Again, it's a complicated issue but it might be able to fix some issues if approached carefully.

The wars are because of the borders

ah, then the only thing that makes those borders bad is the border gore

Your mediocre attempt had some flaws let me correct them All north Africa is morroco except Egypt reasoning Egypt is the most square country and the rest is Zimbabwe exept for Chad just for the meme I decided north Africa be eTEAnecithy and let the square do square things and for the rest chads are chads and Zimbabwe sounds good This is how you make borders you Dingus

That's true, at this point it's better for these countries to just continue as they are now, that has worked out for countries like Botswana, Ghana and Kenya as well. It's just fun to speculate on what the borders would look like if they were ever accurately drawn :)

different cultural values may get in the way of that. look at israel and palestine, jews and muslims were basically middle eastern brothers back then but look at it now constant battle by the israeli and the palestinians over the land. Its simply not possible to force everyone to live in harmony.

@@ExtraInExile yea, nice video btw, it's well researched and has a lot of effort behind it

@@jmgonzales7701 I understand your point but as the above reply states it can succeed, if you ask a Kenyan who they are they'll first say "I'm a kenyan" before they say their tribe

@@ExtraInExile Isn't Botswana ethinically cohesive tho?

I agree

Especially how people have moved around inside the current borders of the nations such division would only leave people stranded form their people in other lands.

Even before decolonisation, these countries already had many decades of political existence and development

Yes. It's much easier to do something like this when you're dealing with African politicians in an environment hosted and supervised by mostly disinterested constitutional monarchies and advanced republics than attempting to do the same with sovereign entities that can literally break any law they want because they are the law.

"if only the whites had done it"

So you guys are Just going to let the whites do whatever they want to? And get your money?

Right now this wouldn't work I may would have been better if the border were like that at the begging

curious, why would it cause a civil war?

Free Cape Onafhanklikheid vir Kaapstad Fuck SA, you bunch of uncivilised assholes

@@kosinusify a lot of people groups that have since apartheid ended moved back to their traditional home steads and now some minority's like eff are trying to get us to drop the ideas of borders and go back to pre colonial Africa state, so to suddenly try and force border changes on such groups would only lead to conflict and clashes of culture and traditions, some clashes are already happening and then spend decades in court to try and solve them peacefully like with what happened to PE and how it got a name that even locals where unsure how to pronounce it correctly and had to call their extended family I'm Gauteng to get a good pronunciation of the new name, while most just went on calling it PE.

Yeah South Africa is trying but we have literally nothing in common with each other the British just drew lines and said live together we have 11 official languages like bro 😭 but we trying

@@johngifts8688 It sounds bad. We Poles are sometimes mad about borders. They were artificially created after WW2, drawn by Stalin. It was basically moved west to give more lands to USSR and take land from Germany. Millions of Poles were relocated to the previously German lands from modern Ukraine and Belarus. But in the end 96% of Polish citizens are ethnically Polish and we have no border issues with neighbours. Africa got it much worse. I wish you good fortune.

@@MyPrideFlag thanks bro but we will learn to live with each other it's just we at a point where we say to one another you not South African because you white or you brown or you too black 😕 but it will soon pass

@@johngifts8688 As far as I know the ethnic groups in South Africa live in relative peace with each other and there's very little ethnic conflict.

@@mybodyisamachine bro the EFF ☠️

Good point!

Ruun 👍

@@Arkofpainting Somalian has somali people

It's funny since Oromo's pushing the Adalites to Harar city 500 years ago. The Oromo invasion was disastrous for Ethiopia too they took Shewa, Wellega, Arsi, Bale, Harargae etc. It started 500 years ago. They aren't native to Ethiopia, they're from Kenya.

@@Arkofpainting Hooyoda siilkeeda.

and that can all be solved organically by the Africans just like it took the Europeans a couple of world wars to settle on there borders. Africans never got that chance since they keep getting global interference and borders where made for them against there will. it will only lead to further suffering in the long term instead of solving it now and resetting the borders because eventually its going to happen anyways might aswell get it out of the way early.

I think African Monoculture borders, or a combination of a few monocultures to make a true state, would work much better than the current systems. Remember, Africa in the past had it's own nations, kingdoms, and empires before colonization, meaning the European style of governance(or lack of understanding of the land they're governing) doesn't apply all that well at all to the geography and history of African nations. Let's take Ethiopia as an example of a successful African state(pre 20-21st century), with at least 30 different ethnicities and nationalities, and around 5 or 6 majorly populated ones out of the 30, it has existed for centuries without totally collapsing. Because of it's geography, being mainly mountainous, it is extremely hard to invade externally. However, as per it's civil war you can see it is susceptible to internal conflict(Note that the nation never seemed like it was going to cease to exist, much like the American Civil War). Being a nation that has been able to naturally form over the centuries and take on many forms has molded it's identity, much like European countries, and formed a loose cohesion between the peoples who have lived there making it a place where the tensions between the peoples aren't as extreme as most other African states. A great example of a modern(20-21st century) African state is Botswana. Not only have they banded together to petition the U.K in the past to be an independently governed territory(to avoid being apart of Rhodesia), which did succeed, after they gained their independence(When the U.K released most of their colonies and territories) they once again banded together to vote for what would be best for the people there. Botswana itself is a very desolate place, which is primarily why Britain allowed it to be independently governed, however because of their geography there wasn't much to fight over so a democracy was naturally the most stable choice to have. Of course precious gems being discovered in the territory did a lot to boost the nations economy, but because of it's history of banding together, they were able to keep the few mines they had safe from corruption(partially because they invited a private company to invest, harvest, and protect said resource too). The main troubles these African nations are facing are implementing modern forms of governance with their given borders, which don't conform to any of their historically defined cultures. This is why corruption and wars are so prevalent, these people are fighting to secure a healthy life for themselves and their followers rather than for the whole nation, because in simple terms, the nation they are apart of is not at all their people, it's an amalgamation of cultures mashed together for convenience. Breaking up many of these states to form smaller culture-based nations would help stabilize the region and also provide a want to form mutual pacts of aid, like the East African Federation is attempting to do. As you said, this wouldn't fix all of Africa's problems, new problems would for sure arise from this, but the severity of said problems would be a much lighter burden on the people governing and living in these regions. It would go a long way to being able to actually develop the region naturally rather than the self destructive exploitation(material or otherwise) it currently has.

Well, If itll solve some problems i would say is a good thing...

@@MarcoAntonio-xd1ej Will cause more than it solves

@@Cooom I don't see How Africa can prosper with todays borders...

Worst come to worst these ethnic borders could always form a Holy Roman Empire of their own.

please man where you can study that, that sounds like a perfect career for me

It is possible to manage a navigable river across multiple sovereign jurisdictions. The Rhine and Danube rivers in Europe are great examples of this, as is the Mekong in Asia.

Your way is better.

@@decuno1663 Idk, many universities in your country should give have a learning career similar to mine. Its always geography(mother branch)+something else, be it environmental studies, urban development... you name it

true at least rather unite some nations with similarities

Me who already know them from a long time ago:"do it NOW"

@@krakenmommy5169same lol

@@oooshafiqooo I salivate at the thought of the eac making me only have to remember 1 country instead of 8 now and who knows how many by the time they try to actually initiate it.

@@plugshirt1762 idk man

The start is always the most difficult part, thank you for the support!

I can feel the break-through is just around the corner.

@@ExtraInExile Bruh make the sound slower it honestly hurts to listen. But the content is pretty good.

Cause he started 2 weeks ago. Good news is the algorithm picked it up! I'm here for the long haul :)

Because it's hard as hell to understand a word he's saying. Idk if it's a bad lisp, the sound is sped up if it's just his cadence or what but it will unfortunately stay underated if that doesn't get fixed. Good video besides that one issue I hope he gets it fixed

Yes, and that worked so well...

National unity? There’s no unity in Africa since the start, uniting a country based on meaningless values like colonialism is BS. You need actual unity between cultures and ethnicity, the African union is just full of westernized Africans who want to keep their country with old borders to continue being exploited.

It's half true, the issue is that they replaced one boogie man with another, the reason there's tons of corruption now isn't because of "muh ethnicity" now it's because of "muh colonialism". Many Africans who speak up on the Internet all admit that corruption is main issue and it's mostly domestic issue, can they solve it? Who knows. Sadly EU has it's own batch of corrupt nations that need reform so we can't exactly go out and help Africa, better we focus on our neighbours and let Africa decide their future for themselves 😅

Adal isn't even populated by native people, they're from Kenya. It should have been named Oromia

They would have allies though, the somalis in particular identify with the oromo as close neighbors and fellow muslims. It would not be alone in a war.

@@Zeyede_Siyum It should have been oromia for sure, the actual adalites were somalis. That being said the native point is irrelevant, after 500 years they are a part of the area.

Well they can’t because western powers would intervene

as a somalian i love my countries borders

@Вертиго as a somalian i didnt ask

@@kyureevs half your country isn't even part of your country bro

@@thecarrierpigeon6657 wdym most of country is a part of the country (not including somaliland cuz they wanna do their own thing)

Ethiopia's a bit of a different critter too. The modern country is essentially equivalent to the fabled precolonial Kingdom. This is also true of Swaziland, I would add, and I believe Lesotho is too.

Thank you so much! I've always wanted to share some of the maps that I've made, so I wanted to do this video as soon as possible.

Good point!

@@ExtraInExile you really destroyed ethiopia from big too small

@@oooshafiqooo If you think that’s bad just look at a map of the Zagwe Empire. Went from Axum to yikes.

@@wildfire9280 zagwe empire? Whats that nation?

@@oooshafiqooo the size it should be

True but the Yoruba and Igbo could still somehow coexist the tension mostly happens with the Islamic north and the mostly Christian south but I could be wrong

@@justsomeguy7294 Yoruba and hausa Fulani actually work together only Benin and Igbo would work together that’s how I’d split it

Well Africans want it to change. The only reason those countries are that way is because of western influence. In Europe it’s the peace after WW2 that America has held up, in Indonesia and Philippines it’s colonialism making them have to unite together to be their own country.

Indonesia? Rather bold of you to use them as an example

Yeah good point now that I think about it given recent events haha. I mean, they've been able to keep it together for longer than Yugoslavia ever did so I guess they do still count. @@andriusgimbutas3723

people in switzerland are all ethnically swiss tho, even if they speak different languages

@@andriusgimbutas3723 didn’t the philippines and indoesnia both have ethnic cleansing.

Let me guess🤔 United Africa with its capital in Lisbon

@@easytiger6570 Well portugal did claim the entire continent of africa at one point. The big wtf however comes when king leopold of belgium wanted to claim west virginia and portugal as his own property.

@@axlr8deathpls294 Can I have a source for that please so that i can look it up

Nah i dont think tho because some places are just unstable and corrupted as hell and some ethnic groups hate each other

@@friendlywobbly9903 Look up the Treaty of Tordesillas. Everything east of certain point was supposed to belong to Portugal, everything west to Spain.

Lol Europe did that to make Africa in conflict

It’s not about civilization. It’s about the people that live there. Majority of people that live in that part are Somali.

To be fair ethiopia had 2 civil wars and still has tribal feuds not helped by their federal system

So easy to talk - the Europeans did a pretty good job! This is very simply validated: There have been lots of wars in Africa in post-colonial times - how many of those have been over National Borders?

@@frankyyaggabot6222 no one stop Africa change their border now

@@ludai602 Just Africans themselves - there are 50+ countries in Africa and they like their borders and all the benefits they accrue from being independent countries.

No we want you back 🇿🇦🙋🏾‍♂️

@@johngifts8688 💀

@@johngifts8688 Let's colonize Zambia.

What about Barotseland

@@bitshox1215 there's no problem with it, what have you heard about it?

Thanks, I appreciate the support for the studies!

very easy to say, very difficult to keep internal balance among majorities and minorities

@@sergicb1533 That's true, but as societies advance, and wealth is gained, and less stratified, generally peoples insecurities lessen, and their need to hate and blame everything on another group tends to recede. We know how to fight the problem generally.

Honestly all the responses like this to the video give me some hope for humanity.

No.

Love your comment. We are so concentrated on the nation-state idea as the one form that can allow culrural self determination that we forget that there are other reasonable models. Ethno-cultural identity can be set and served on an individual model in which I opt for my national/cultural identity and receive cultural and educational services (schooling, media, museums, organised high art, etc) not from the regional/national state but from an ethno-cultural body. You can have an Hungarian ministry of culture and Education able to offer and support schools and universities, tv, radio, museums, national ballet/Opera/theatre, folk dance groups, literary prizes, the printing of books and magazines in Hungarian etc wherever Hungarians exist. From Brazil to Romania. From the UK to Hungary itself. Funding can come from each state still, strictly following percentages of ethnic adherence in each territory (Brazil has 0.003% of population from an immigrant population? Then it gives 0.003% of the total culture budget to that country) and election of officials can be done directly by the adherents. For those who want to be a klingon or a unicorn? You can either have a limited number of choices (dangerous but perhaps necessary) or just go for it. But you cannot put your kids in an American or Hungarian school without paying as a non-adherent. But you can open a school teaching in Klingon or the Klingon national folk dances group...which does sound fun

The West African initiative will never work it'll just be a Nigeria Square. Muslim-Christian conflicts, ethnic conflict, terrorism ,banditry etc will be be the norm if it happens.

I think we should let them figure it out rather than meddle any more than we already have. Regarding unification of African nations together, I personally think the East African Federation might have been a good idea before South Sudan and the DRC got involved, two extremely unstable and poor states that would tear the rest of the union apart.

@@hstochla true

Thank you! I guess we'll always need to pray for the algorithm to notice us at the start huh.

Thank you!

Africa needs to unite not divde , (regional integration is a good start )(like EAC in east Africa ,economic union and joint military

And he shouldn't have included Indo-European because it's overlooking the Dutch conquest.

Lool somalia would never accept

Colonisation ended slavery in Africa, created widespread urbanisation and education, added about 30-40 years of life to the average sub-saharan African and brought much of Africa the span of 6,000 years of development. What was bad about that?

@@frankyyaggabot6222 Even if the borders were completely messed up for fun.. How did India manage and they can't with their measly population compared to India.

​ @@frankyyaggabot6222colonialism was literally slavery, Africa was already rich , you lied most Africa was at the same level of development as the rest of the world , colonialism brought death, exploitation, f@mine and created new conflict every where.

@@IgnasV India managed - Pakistan, Bangladesh? India took a long time to get to half-way normal because it went down the socialist route. Some African countries are into double figures for coups since Independence which probably speaks volumes about why they cannot manage stable democracies (not that they manage dictatorships either). There have however been very few border wars in Africa - that either speaks to a well thought out border regime or, that the countries have been too unstable internally to worry about external actors.

Yes, defensibility is just as important as the other factors considered. Also resource allocation.

Thank you very much! I'm sure that the algorithm can't ignore me forever.

As a somalian, I can confirm we should be better than a civil war destroying us, and become a better, stronger and better so we can become one of the best

That's very true, it feels kinda disingenuous for another European to split up Africa again lol, this map is just for fun though of course!

@@ExtraInExile Let time divide Africa Very cool video , I wish you success 👍

This guy's solution to those arbitrary borders is *ethnostates??*

Yes, the nation state is ONE theory of how countries should be organized, and it only "worked" in Europe thanks to an enormous amount of ethnic cleansing through the world wars.

@@MILOPETITlmao

That's what Africa really need Ethno-States

​@@creativefantasybox2462if we talk genetically then morroco takes over most north Africa lol

Thank you very much!

I mean technically that was algeria pre colonization

No they wouldn't. First off the names don't even make sense, "Djibouti" for an Afar state and "Adal" (the name of a Somali sultanate) for an Oromo state is nonsensical. The Afar state would fail because of a lack of resources. The Oromo state includes so many different groups of Oromos that would fall into infighting and Greater Somalia historically failed because Somalis are divided over regionalism and clans. And the Ethiopian state is just a rump state that would collapse.

⁠@@UnknownFortunegreater Somalia was broken up by imperialism not infighting

Of course!

tbh ethiopia should stay as how it is but keeping these djibouti borders, Afar people are being oppressed

That's a myth it's a european invention

Thank you! It's a nice that I came up with for the map that I made last year, and while I knew it probably wasn't accurate, I was hoping for someone to correct it if I just kept the name lol.

Thank you so much! I'll pay attention to that in the future, since it doesn't sound perfect right now.

@@ExtraInExile Do you have a discord? Also you have a nice voice lol

Yeah, it's Arnoob#3251, but I don't use it too often.

Europe really wouldn’t change that much, due to the world wars and ethnic cleansing a lot of Europe is pretty much accurate to the modern borders. Asia and Africa would really be a shit show, America wouldn’t change that much but just unite into a few countries.

@@Azurethewolf168 as a latin american i think Colombia, venezuela and ecuador uniting would make sense. after all they began as just one country.

@@onejuan3340 yeah, but hard to control

Damn that's really really helpful, thank you! Honestly I've thought of sharing some of these on Reddit, but to them it might seem like an outsider is shamelessly self-promoting, so I've stayed away from it so far.

That was some comprehensive feedback! Very well written. I wanted to address the issue with the reading speed as well, which caused a little bit of confusion in an otherwise excellent video. Glad that you put it so vividly and detail-oriented.

It's a colonial empire

​@@sercunnyIm waiting for people to start realizing this.

@@sercunny no it was never colonized, it was one of the first countries to become christian along with armenia Apostles Matthew and Frumentius were there.

Ethiopia is occupying multiple ethnicites, which is why you hear about genocides happening every other year. The somalia portion isnt even ruled by them

Damn if you actually are that ethnicity then that's insane, didn't think I'd see that ever happening. On the map I made last year I had the christian Sara's as an independent country, but I didn't accept it here because it was double landlocked. I prioritized language families over religions when merging them with another country, but you've probably got better insight than me on this. I'll definitely make a change there, thank you!

Dream on

It was because the Libyan dialect of Arabic is spoken there, so I put it in Libya, of course. Also just to make sure that Egypt looks less like a damn square ya know B)

Libyan dialect to be precise the Libya-Cyrene dialect is spoken there..

Fake countries that's why

Thank you! I hope that I can improve the art in the future as well, since it can be rough around the edges sometimes, but that's very reassuring.

It's kind of impressive how he managed to make it worse lmao. There are a ton of geography experts and African explaining why it would be disastrous. I don't know how someone could look at Africa's borders and think the problem is that it wasn't split up enough or as if instead of having civil wars this wouldn't just cause more wars against other countries while still likely having civil wars.

no one are stop them to draw again