After decolonization, state boundaries in Africa remained remarkably stable, but the colonial names of African states often changed. Explore a list of current African countries according to their former colonial names, with explanations of border changes and amalgamations of territories.

In 1963, during the era of independence, the Organization of African Union agreed to a policy of inviolable borders, which dictated that colonial-era boundaries were to be upheld, with one caveat.

Due to the French policy of governing their colonies as large federated territories, several countries were created out of each of Frances former colonies, using the old territorial boundaries for the new country boundaries. There were Pan-Africanist efforts to create federated states, like the Federation of Mali, but these all failed.

After World War I, all of Germanys African colonies were taken away and made mandate territories by the League of Nations. This meant they were supposed to be prepared for independence by Allied powers, namely Britain, France, Belgium, and South Africa.

German East Africa was divided between Britain and Belgium, with Belgium taking control over Rwanda and Burundi and Britain taking control of what was then called Tanganyika.

After independence, Tanganyika united with Zanzibar and become Tanzania.

German Kamerun was also larger than Cameroon is today, extending into what is today Nigeria, Chad, and the Central African Republic. Following World War I, most of German Kamerun went to France, but Britain also controlled the portion adjacent to Nigeria. At independence, the northern British Cameroons elected to join Nigeria, and the southern British Cameroons joined Cameroon.

German South West Africa was controlled by South Africa until 1990.

The country of Somalia is comprised of what were formerly Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland.

Moroccos borders are still disputed. The country is made up primarily of two separate colonies, French Morocco and Spanish Morocco. Spanish Morocco lay on the

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