A professor and several students at Brown University have created an animated map of Africa from 1879 to 2002 showing armed conflicts, changing rule (colonial, monarchical, white minority, etc.) and shifting political boundaries. Access the map here. (Read about Professor Nancy Jacobs and the student research team here.)
The pointer to the map comes from Chris Blattman, a professor of political science and economics at Princeton. Blattman is offering a course at Princeton this semester titled “Why is Africa poor and what (if anything) can the West do about it?” (official title: African Poverty and Western Aid). The blog for the course is here; it gives open access to his lectures and many helpful links (e.g., more map links here) to anyone interested in the subject.