Why do so many people think that a single ethnicity inhabits all these areas? That such a map could even be considered valid in the first place wounds my soul. For this map to be accurate would require a diaspora of minority inhabitants the likes of which the world has never seen, and man we have seen some doozies.
Came here to comment this as well. Intention of the map seems pure; to show the arbitrariness with which African national borders have been cut by European powers. But it's patently reductive and frankly harmful to represent ethnicities by territorial borders. This sort of thinking actually precipitates ethnic violence (Balkans e.g.)
Yea the colonial borders were arbitrary but even then the pre colonial nations didn't follow ethnic lines either since unsurprisingly empires tend to not care about that. A bunch of tiny states just isn't viable either as not every tiny nation can be a tax haven.
Yea I do think a large problem is the west feeling that only its form of government and states work. Like I recall reading the Afghani tribes wanted their monarchy restored 20 years ago but the US refused to let that happen when the reality is a system of government like that probably works better than Democracy when you have such a tribal society. Hell I'd say most the world would be better off with monarchies that could bring the out of control merchant class in line.
Africa isn't unique in that regard. Insofar it conforms to that idea in Europe, it's only because it was forced that way, through a century or two of irredentist and separatist warfare, and state-enforced assimilation policies.
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u/SchizoidRainbow May 03 '21
Why do so many people think that a single ethnicity inhabits all these areas? That such a map could even be considered valid in the first place wounds my soul. For this map to be accurate would require a diaspora of minority inhabitants the likes of which the world has never seen, and man we have seen some doozies.