## A new institutional framework  
The end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century witnessed important changes in Africa's political map. After long wars of national liberation, the former Portuguese colonies became sovereign States in the 1970s: Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde celebrated their independence on 24 September 1973; Angola followed on 11 November 1974; and finally, Mozambique on 25 June 1975. It was the turn of Namibia and South Africa to go through profound changes in the 1990s. The former gained independence from South Africa's mandate on 21 March 1990. Nelson Mandela was freed from Robben Island jail on 11 February 1990 and was elected shortly after as the first post-apartheid South African president. Two new sovereign States entered the African political scene during the same time, after long and painful wars of liberation: Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1991, and South Sudan separated from the Republic of Sudan and celebrated its independence on 9 July 2011.  
The establishment of the African Union in 1999 and the initiation of the regional integration process sparked a new momentum, challenging the divisions of the continent and the identity and nation construction model inherited from the colonial period. The major changes in the areas of economic cooperation and international relations that have influenced our globalized world since the end of the 1990s have paved the way for new opportunities as well as new  
challenges and threats for Africa. Indeed, the accelerated pace of urbanization, Africa's wealth in terms of natural and strategic resources and the aspirations and creativity of young people pose new challenges for the people of Africa, thus emphasizing the need to take control of their destiny.