Where
Burkina Faso was divided from Niger they used the mountain tops to
define the border, and where there were no mountains they used
rivers, and where the rivers turned east-west instead of helpfully
north-south they used colonial maps, and where the maps told
different stories they used astronomical markers placed on hills in
the desert, and where markers had been staked beneath the wrong stars
the judges placed a ruler on the map and drew the shortest distance
between two points, making the crooked places straight, taking some
from one side and giving it to the other, and then continued judging
beyond those borders, parceling out land that neither side had claimed at
all, saying where was whose and who was where until they left no
questions unanswered and all were in agreement with the stones, the
waters, and the stars.