While Western Australia’s secession movement foundered, it sparked a series of debates around London’s obligations to overseas Britons, Britannic identity, and the future of imperial relations.
Demonstrators in Somalia protest news of a Red Sea deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland in January 2024.
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An official proclamation issued by two Tennessee lawmakers commemorates Confederate History Month, fails to mention slavery and instead honors what it calls a “heroic struggle for states’ rights.”
Acts of secession are happening across the U.S.
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Secession talk evokes fears of a second Civil War. But one scholar says secession is already happening in the US under a variety of guises.
Voters display their permanent voters card during the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections in Lagos.
Adekunle Ajayi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Logistical challenges facing the 2023 elections remain huge given the number of political parties, the security environment and the number of contestants at various levels.
Graffiti in Muslim-dominated Mombasa rallies against the 2017 election with the Kiswahili slogan “Kura ni Haramu” (“voting is haram/prohibitted”).
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WA Premier Mark McGowan’s strong stance on borders has reminded many of the long streak of separateness that has defined Western Australia throughout history.
A cheering crowd surrounds the toppled statue of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in Addis Ababa following the overthrow of the Ethiopian military regime in 1991.
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The grievances of Nnamdi Kanu and other Biafran separatist groups are deeply rooted in the failure of the Nigerian state to implement post civil war peacebuilding initiatives.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrives to cast his vote during the country’s parliamentary elections in Beshasha, Oromia, in June.
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Colonial powers framed secessionism as a threat to state-building and not as an expression of self-determination
A Scottish Saltire flag hangs in the window of an apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland, next to the EU flag in August 2020. Scotland could vote to separate from the U.K. in 2021.
(AP Photo/David Cheskin)
Scotland’s renewed push for independence is not only similar to Québec’s — there are also lessons for Scottish politicians in Canadian law on the concept of separation.
Soldiers patrol the mountainous, disputed border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, on Nov. 8.
Stanislav Krasilnikov\TASS via Getty Images
Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Each side in the bloody Nagorno-Karabakh conflict accuses the other of war crimes. Such allegations attract foreign attention and possibly intervention, but rarely lead to a peaceful solution.
There is a growing movement in Sabah and Sarawak for increased sovereignty or outright secession. Many feel the promises of federation haven’t been delivered.
Construction workers extracted a Calhoun statue in Charleston, South Carolina on June 24, 2020.
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Despite his defense of slavery, the former vice president and US senator from South Carolina has been honored with statues and streets, schools and counties. That’s finally changing.
Supporters of Cameroonian President Paul Biya outside the French embassy in Yaounde.
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Professor of Francophone Studies (Africa, Caribbean), Faculty Affiliate with Africana Studies, World Literature Program and Human Rights Pracice, University of Arizona