DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 2 -- ON the afternoon of October 13, President Xi Jinping held talks with President Duma Gideon Boko of Botswana, who was on a state visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Many people, especially Gen Z, do not realise that during the late nineteenth-century Scramble for Africa, European powers claimed nearly the entire continent. Looking back, the maps they used to divide Africa were largely inaccurate.

When defining the boundaries of their new territories, European negotiators often drew straight lines on maps, taking little or no account of the many traditional monarchies, chiefdoms and other African societies and cultures already there.

On closer examination, nearly half of the new borders im...