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Summary

Oliver Kramsch and Chiara Brambilla, researchers in the field of borders, use Walter Mignolo’s epistemologic perspective to develop a new viewpoint on Euro-African border spaces in their article. The analysis of a report by the West African Borders and Integration (WABI) initiative reveals a new perspective on the EU, its border spaces and cross-border relations, which eclipses colonial reports and is used as a model by WABI. It contains new dynamics in the reciprocal historic construction of borders, which make it necessary to broaden Mignolo’s concept on exteriority and on the way to think borders over. The authors conclude that Eurocentrism and Occidentalism are not solely located in Western Europe, but are appropriated and interpreted specifically on a local level beyond European borders. Conversely, the way borders and exteriority are considered is not solely found outside the West. The authors have therefore drawn up their article as a method to think borders over, allowing for reclassification of Euro-African relations and border construction.