Legal and Evidential Implications of Emerging Satellite Imagery of Ancient African Relict Boundaries

Abstract

This article refutes Eurocentric description of precolonial Africa as stateless, politically unsophisticated and essentially undemarcated. This is despite significant ethnographic and oral histories that suggest the opposite. This position has been challenged by the evidence emanating from recent satellite imagery and orthorectified imagery as well as archaeological studies. These findings, it is argued, provide overwhelming evidence of very precise boundary features and markers separating precolonial African cities, states and political groups. For instance, it has been discovered that between Lake Chad and the Atlantic Ocean, in West Africa, there are about 10,000 town and city walls at least 25% of which are on presently deserted sites. The author helpfully identifies specific aspects of the evidential value of the relict wall discoveries such as in dealing with on-going and future self-determination struggles; resolution of international and national boundary disputes; questions relating to the uti possidetis principle; as well as ongoing debates relating to the legal effects of colonial territorial titles and intertemporal law.