In the Ber­lin con­fe­rence of 1884/85, Euro­pean colo­nisers who had ear­lier inva­ded the Afri­can con­ti­nent nor­ma­li­zed the arbi­tra­ri­ly car­ved bor­ders into Euro­pean colo­ni­al ter­ri­to­ries. In the pro­cess, pre­vious­ly inde­pen­dent Afri­can nati­ons, king­doms and peo­p­les were eit­her torn apart or forced to beco­me part of this new Euro­pean car­to­gra­phy in Afri­ca. The­se arti­fi­ci­al­ly con­s­truc­ted bor­ders which in many cases forced dif­fe­rent peo­p­les to live tog­e­ther wit­hout any con­sul­ta­ti­on were meant to ser­ve colo­ni­al eco­no­mic and poli­ti­cal inte­rests by faci­li­ta­ting the easy explo­ita­ti­on of the con­ti­nent and its peo­p­le wit­hout limit. Till today, the­se bor­ders remain the defi­ning poli­ti­cal fea­tures of the con­ti­nent. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the­se bor­ders, along with the sys­tem of divi­de and rule that the colo­nia­lists brought with them have also been the source of count­less civil wars throug­hout the con­ti­nent. Howe­ver, the­re is an inten­si­fy­ing con­scious­ness of Afri­cans to over­co­me the­se pro­blems by explo­ring alter­na­ti­ves to the­se colo­ni­al bor­ders and arran­ge­ments. What are the­se alter­na­ti­ves and how do they fit into Afri­can Renaissance?

Spea­k­ers: Mbo­lo Yufanyi, Com­mu­ni­ty Orga­nis­er (Africa/Black Com­mu­ni­ty, Ber­lin)
Mazi Gai­us God­spower, Indi­ge­nous Peo­p­le of Biaf­ra (IPOB) e.V. Bremen

Mode­ra­tor: Sun­ny Omwe­ny­e­ke (Bre­men Empower­ment Project)