The repercussions of the vote in South Sudan are doomed to extend well beyond Sudan, or the two Sudans after the likely secession of the Southern provinces. Despite the legality of the referendum, the African Union is aware of the historical moment that the whole Africa is about to face. The break-up of Sudan is likely to trigger off a snowball effect, threatening the integrity of other African states. The most vulnerable are certainly the states of the Sahelo-Sudanese belt, where other nations encompass the same pattern that provoked the long war in Sudan: an Arabic North and a black South. A would-be message that Arabs and Africans cannot live together in the same state would be a tragedy for Africa. More generally, the multiplication of quasi states under the pressure of external forces is compelling African states to profoundly revise their own institution-building processes to address democracy and development.