Frontiers in North Africa

2.5 Border location

The location of North African borders created during the colonial period is easily established from secondary sources. The most convenient and accessible general source for details of African borders and border disputes is Professor Brownlie's impressive study of African boundaries published in 1979 (Brownlie 1979) and much of the following discussion over the creation of North African colonial borders is taken from this source. Three other important secondary sources also exist, however - Martel's study of Tunisian and Algerian borders with Libya (Martel 1965); a general study of Algeria's borders by Boualem Bougaita (Bougaita 1979); and Trout's elaborate study of Morocco's frontiers (Trout 1969). Modern sovereignty and border problems have been dealt with by Tony Hodges (Hodges 1984) for the Western Sahara and by Bernard Lanne (Lanne 1984) for the Aozou Strip in northern Chad. The problem of the Algerian border with Libya in the Ghat region is not dealt with by secondary sources in any detailed way and here recourse must be made to archival material.

The following discussion will first outline border creation in North Africa, before turning to specific modern border and sovereignty problems. A final section will then discuss the theoretical problems involved in modern border structures and in concepts of political sovereignty. This will also involve a consideration of the degree to which European constructs have been absorbed into North African practice so that the congruence of the nation and the state has become of paramount importance in such Issues.