Decolonizing Borders: Rethinking the Berlin Conference’s impact through Pan-African Unity and Regional Integration Frameworks

Résumé

The 1884–85 Berlin Conference established arbitrary colonial borders that continue to shape Africa’s contemporary geopolitical challenges. This paper reframes the Berlin Conference not merely as a historical artifact, but as an ongoing structural problem requiring active mitigation through Pan-African unity and regional integration. Drawing on postcolonial theory, international relations, and African political economy, the study examines how the African Union (AU), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) function as vehicles for border decolonization. Through policy analysis and scenario modelling, the paper explores juridical reforms and cross-border governance innovations that challenge colonial spatial legacies. Findings demonstrate that while complete border reconfiguration remains politically unfeasible, functional integration through economic cooperation, freedom of movement protocols, and harmonized legal frameworks offers pragmatic decolonization pathways. This paper makes a twofold contribution to scholarship: first, it bridges postcolonial theory and integration studies by operationalizing decolonization as a measurable policy outcome rather than an abstract ideal. Second, it advances scenario-based frameworks for evaluating border governance innovations, offering scholars and policymakers a replicable analytical toolkit for assessing Pan-African integration trajectories. The paper thus repositions regional integration as simultaneously an economic imperative and an act of epistemic and political decolonization.

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