Book contents
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- African Studies Series
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Centring the Margins
- Part I From Frontiers to Boundaries
- Part II States and Taxes, Land and Mobility
- Part III Decolonization and Boundary Closure, c.1939–1969
- 8 Bringing the Space Back In
- 9 The Vanishing Horizon of Senegambian Unity
- 10 Forging the Nation, Contesting the Border
- Part IV States, Social Contracts and Respacing from Below, c.1970–2010
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
9 - The Vanishing Horizon of Senegambian Unity
Statist Visions and Border Dynamics
from Part III - Decolonization and Boundary Closure, c.1939–1969
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2019
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- African Studies Series
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Centring the Margins
- Part I From Frontiers to Boundaries
- Part II States and Taxes, Land and Mobility
- Part III Decolonization and Boundary Closure, c.1939–1969
- 8 Bringing the Space Back In
- 9 The Vanishing Horizon of Senegambian Unity
- 10 Forging the Nation, Contesting the Border
- Part IV States, Social Contracts and Respacing from Below, c.1970–2010
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
A press statement issued by their embassy on the occasion of a visit by Léopold Senghor to London in October 1961 summed up the official Senegalese position, namely that the Senegambia comprised a ‘natural region’, in which there were also many elements of a shared culture2 – all of which was at odds with the rigidities associated with colonial boundaries. The border between Senegal and the Gambia, which comprised a series of straight lines and arcs of circles, seemed to typify the arbitrary manner in which the Europeans had imposed boundaries that separated one colonial domain from the other.
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- Information
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West AfricaThe Centrality of the Margins, pp. 333 - 356Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019