In a way, the British, French, Belgian and Portuguese Empires in Africa died the strangest deaths in all of Empire-breakup history. In many ways it was a non-death.
Compare it to the earlier 20th century deaths of the Ottoman, Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, where you saw actual borders being redrawn, imperial languages of government being replaced and new ethnic-based nation-states being born; in Africa, virtually none of this happened.
Also, I find the survival of Post-colonial 'Commonwealth/Francophonie' type organisations really strange - there's no 'Ottoman Commonwealth', 'Austro-Hungarian Commonwealth' or 'Mongol Commonwealth'.
So this begs the obvious question. What if the end of Empire in Africa had been as thorough and as 'normal' as the break up of most Empires in human history, in particular, those that took place earlier in the twentieth century. By that I mean:
- Boundaries are redrawn so that ethnic based nation-states are created. You'd have a Yoruba state created out of southern Benin and Nigeria and a Hausa state created out of Northern Nigeria and Niger, for example. Unfortunately for smaller groups, just like in Eastern Europe, these would become minorities.
- Colonial languages disappear completely from officialdom and their use as Lingua Francas likewise goes out the window - just as German has in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, Turkish in the former Ottoman Empire or as Russian is doing in Eastern Europe.
- Post-colonial organisations like the Commonwealth and the Francophonie just don't exist, anymore than there is a post-Ottoman Commonwealth
So the obvious question is, how would this affect international relations?