Atlas Outtake #8: ICJ case no. 2010/24


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.