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Abstract
This paper examines the controversy between Kenya and Uganda over the ownership of Migingo Island in the shared Lake Victoria waters, in the context of general debates regarding African boundary disputes. The Migingo controversy brings to the fore unresolved issues around the emergence, nature and transformation of African borders generally, and their significant role in addressing pertinent questions of territoriality, citizenship and nationhood. Like other border controversies elsewhere in Africa, the Migingo case challenges the perception that border areas are marginal spaces that can be ignored. Migingo's troubles underscore the realities of Africa's colonial borders, bringing into focus the border populations and the social, cultural and economic relations they generate across the dividing lines. While challenging eastern Africa's states to view local communities as important agents in fostering change along common borders, the paper emphasizes the need for harmonious border relations as a barometer in testing good neighbourliness and regional integration.
Notes
1. CitationCurzon, “Frontiers.” For elaboration on the point, see CitationMcEwen, International Boundaries and CitationBen Arrous, Beyond Territoriality.
2. See the commentaries on the Migingo controversy contained in the Daily Nation, East African Standard, The East African and The Monitor from April to August 2009.
3. Nugent and CitationAsiwaju, African Boundaries, 1–17.
4. CitationGlassner, Political Geography.
5. CitationMbembe, “At the Edge of the World,” makes a convincing argument as to the nature of space and territoriality in pre-colonial Africa.
6. Asiwaju, Partitioned Africans provides a checklist of partitioned African ethnic communities. The argument is restated in CitationNugent and Asiwaju, African Boundaries.
7. See CitationDavidson, Black Man's Burden and CitationDonnan and Wilson, Borders.
8. CitationKatzenellenbogen, “It Didn't Happen at Berlin,” further argues that by 1884 European powers had been grabbing pieces of Africa for many years and many boundaries had already been set.
9. Asiwaju, Partioned Africans; Nugent, Smugglers.
10. CitationBen Arrous, Mapping Contemporary Africa, 8.
11. An argument forcefully pursed by CitationClapham, Africa and the International System.
12. CitationTouval, “The Sources of Status Quo and Irredentist Policies.”
13. CitationHerbst, States and Power in Africa.
14. The term borderlands refers to regions lying along and across the boundary separating one country from another. CitationHansen, Border Economy, describes borderlands as “sub-national areas whose economic and social life are directly and significantly affected by proximity to an international boundary.” See also Nugent and Asiwaju, African Boundaries.
15. CitationAseka, Pitfalls of Ideology.
16. CitationAseka, Pitfalls of Ideology.
17. CitationOjo, “International Actors.”
18. CitationAnderson, Imagined Communities.
19. CitationBarth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries.
20. CitationZdenek, The OAU and its Charter.
21. .CitationTouval, “Partitioned Groups and Inter-State Relations.”
22. CitationOkumu, “Migingo Dispute,” 6.
23. CitationOkumu, “Migingo Dispute,” 6.
24. For instance, CitationNjiru et al. “Increasing Dominance of Nile Tilapia,” 42–9.
25. CitationAdetula, “Regional Integration in Africa.”
26. CitationNugent and Asiwaju, African Boundaries, 9.
27. Okumu, “Migingo Dispute,” 6.
28. CitationOchwada, “Rethinking East African Integration,” 9.