But some leading African Union members are fearful of encouraging secessionist sentiment across the continent.
Insecure neighbours may blame America for unleashing a secessionist bug, not least given its support for splitting up Sudan.
It also is driven very much by a secessionist account of Judaism as being something that was moribund at the time of Jesus.
The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements, insurgencies, and failed states -- all these things have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos.
Britain's best-known secessionist is a bookseller named Richard Booth, who in 1977 declared himself king-and his horse prime minister-of the Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye.
A bunch arrested earlier this year after an alleged attack on a dam under construction were paraded on state television as members of the secessionist Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
