(In)visibility of African borders: a decolonial examination of the African Union's boundary practices

Abstract In this article, we use a decolonial lens, a careful content and discourse analysis of key documents on African borders since 1963 and a political ethnographic research method to explore how the boundary practices of the African Union (AU) shape the visibility and invisibility of borders in Africa. We make the counterintuitive argument that the AU's boundary practices have largely enhanced the visibility of international borders created by colonial powers during the Berlin Conference of 1884–5 (Berlin-made borders) while rendering invisible the borders established internally by indigenous Africans (people's borders). We outlined four specific sets of boundary practices that the AU used to make Berlin-made borders visible—and people's borders invisible—and we examine their implications for international cooperation. A major implication of our analysis is that, despite its anti-colonial rhetoric and public persona, the AU is essentially promoting colonialism in Africa by reinforcing European border practices while suppressing and erasing their indigenous African alternatives. The article thus provides a compelling account of how self-styled anti-colonial institutions based in the global South may contribute to the perpetuation of colonialism, an issue largely overlooked in International Relations scholarship.