The Face of new Africa

Most boundaries have remained the same, but independence has brought new recognition to African states. 

How well do we know our African geography? Everyone could identify a map of the world's second largest continent, and with a little help from school days, point out within a layman's distance such places as Cairo, Dakar or Addis Ababa. Most of us would have a vague knowledge of the continent's topography with the vast desert to the north, the rolling grasslands of the far south and the dense tropical forests which lie between.

But when it comes to political boundaries, our knowledge fails. Only a few years ago, the schoolboy, glancing at his map of Africa, would know that the red areas designated a territory belonging to this country, the yellow, to another and the blue to still another.

Suddenly all that has changed. In the past five years 22 new countries have achieved independence in Africa.

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