The Boundary Politics of Independent Africa brings insights not only to Africanists but also to students of international relations and, more specifically, of conflict. The African states that gained independence during the 1950s and 1960s emerged within the boundaries established by their colonial rulers. Both African leaders and outside observers believed then that bitter conflicts would erupt over these borders. This has not happened. There have been numerous conflicts, but only a very few have been major disruptions.
The prediction of boundary and territorial conflict, Saadia Touval explains, stemmed from the false assumption, based on the European experience of irredentism and secession, that the tribes and ethnic groups divided by boundaries would seek to unite, to become members of the same state, or to form a state of their own, and therefore would challenge the boundaries dividing them.