Discusses the development and function of African boundaries from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Beginning with the historical perspective, the book then considers the impact of boundaries on pastoralists, the use of borders as "cordons sanitaire" against diseases, and as places of refuge.

Boundaries are inherently artificial - they interpose barriers between people which do not exist by any fundamental law of human organization. The contrast between the intentions of those who police boundaries and those who are affected by them is part of the paradoxical nature of boundaries throughout the world. In Africa the paradoxes were accentuated, as colonial powers constructed new boundaries for their own purposes, altering the pre-colonial perceptions of the boundary and its functions.