The book holds that the best solution to the perennial conflicts in sub-Saharan African countries is a rational Federalism through a sensible Federal Autonomy structure. The foundation of these conflicts lies in arbitrary colonial boundaries and arbitrary agglomerations of peoples, conflicts that have been aggravated in each country by the poor management of diversity since independence, conflicts that are contributing in great measure to poor pace of development in Black Africa, to poverty, and to massive human suffering. This advocacy of today differs in degrees from the early Pan-African advocacy of previous years, in which many African youths excitedly participated. The earlier Pan-Africanism sought freedom and independence, and eventually led to independent countries and the concretization of the continental brotherhood now known as the "African Union". Yet, the internal formulation, structure and management of these countries make any form of unity impossible in almost all the countries, and are panaceas for conflict and underdevelopment, and that only a system of careful respect for the various nationalities in each country, a sensible federal structure based on such respect, serious deference to the reality of national diversity, and higher qualities of statesmanship among the rulers of each country, will positively change the direction of Black Africa's modern history - will, indeed, generate positive change and progress, and prevent the kinds of painful (and possibly destructive) change that further and heightened conflicts and human suffering would generate.
About the Author: Professor Stephen Adebanji Akintoye is an eminent African scholar, academic and author from Nigeria, a leading African historian with famous works in the history of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria in West Africa. After a B.A Honours degree at London University and a Ph.D. in African History at the University of Ibadan, he started his university teaching career in African History at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, where he became a professor and Director of the Institute of African Studies. In the United States, he has taught African History at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, and Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania. His published works include: A History of the Yoruba People (2010), Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland 1840-93, (1971); Emergent States of Africa: Topics in 20th Century African History, (1976), Ten Years of the University of Ife (1973), and An Outline of Yoruba History (2016). He has contributed chapters to several books, as well as several articles to leading scholarly journals. For years, he has written weekly columns for two of Nigeria's national newspapers. Professor Akintoye is now in his eighties, but he still plays active roles as an elder statesman and intellectual leader in the promotion of rational federalism for the countries of his Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a strong pillar among those who propose respect for the nationalities inside each Black African country, through a sensible federal autonomy structure. He holds that this is the best solution to the perennial conflicts in these countries, conflicts whose foundation lies in arbitrary colonial boundaries and arbitrary agglomerations of peoples, conflicts that have been aggravated in each country by the poor management of diversity since independence, conflicts that are contributing in great measure to poor pace of development in Black Africa, to poverty, and to massive human suffering.