This situation became extremely repulsive, while the urban space was becoming transformed into more secure and attractive centers.

From the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia s violent self destruction, and Czechoslovakia s peaceful divorce to today s centrifugal pressures in Europe, the West, and the major emerging countries, fragmentation has been fundamental to international relations in recent decades.

These conflicts have taught Africa that, in order to contain the centrifugal pressures that encourage fragmentation within our relatively new states, a conscious effort must be made to nurture and entrench national unity, which must include democratic practices.