The Curse of Berlin: Africa’s Security Dilemmas ADEKEYE ADEBAJO* Introduction Africa suffers from a curse inflicted in one of Europe’s most famous and cosmopolitan cities: Berlin. The Berlin conference of 1884–1885, under the supervision of Germany’s»Iron Chancellor,« Otto von Bismarck, carved up Africa into territories that reflected compromises struck be­tween avaricious European imperialists – Britain, France, Portugal, Bel­gium, Spain, and Germany – rather than the political and economic in­terests of Africa. 1 The European curse of artificial borders has caused un­told suffering in post-colonial Africa. However, just as Berlin marked the division of Africa, the gods of Africa wrought their revenge on Europe 76 years after Bismarck’s conference. Many African states gained their in­dependence just as the Berlin wall was being erected in 1961. A city that had symbolized the division of Africa now symbolized the division of Germany and Europe. As Kenyan political scientist Ali Mazrui put it: »Europe was … sentenced to the same fate to which Europe had previ­ously condemned Africa – partition and artificial frontiers.« 2 However, post-independence Africa soon suffered from dozens of conflicts, with the curse of Berlin playing a role in border disputes be­tween Morocco and Algeria; Ghana and Togo; Burkina Faso and Mali; Somalia and Ethiopia; Libya and Chad; and Nigeria and Cameroon. Wars were also fuelled by the superpower rivalries of the Cold War, as well as internal governance deficiencies on the part of autocratic African leaders. Since 1960, 32 wars have killed over 10 million Africans and pro­* The author would like to thank Dr Tim Murithi and Ms Angela Ndinga-Muvumba for their useful comments on an earlier version of this paper. 1. This article builds on Adekeye Adebajo,»From Cape to Casablanca: Africa’s Evolv­ing Security Architecture,« in Favorita Papers of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna , No. 3, 2004. 2. Ali Mazrui, The Africans: A Triple Heritage (London: bbc Publications, 1986), p. 279. ipg 4/2005 Adebajo, Africa’s Security Dilemmas 83