Good morning, Andy!

When African states gained independence during the late 1950s and 1960s, they decided that the borders drawn by European powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884 would remain untouched. It was a compromise that prioritized stability over justice. Six decades later, Andréa Ngombet, in his latest story in The Republic, argues that the cost of that compromise has become unsustainable, and that for Central Africa’s small, oil-dependent and fragile states, political union is now a strategic necessity. In The (Mis)Invention of Central Africa, he maps a path toward a unified Central African state led by Congo-Brazzaville. This path draws on the very man who convened the conference that partitioned Africa: Otto von Bismarck. 

Read it here.

Tomi Olugbemi
Associate Social Media Editor, The Republic