 Obviously a postal networks predated independence because African states with the exception of Ethiopia were colonies and therefore they inherited the local administration and with that the postal system and the postal infrastructure but upon independence of course they sometimes struggled to maintain that infrastructure. Because decolonisation occurred very rapidly in certain instances like the Congo, it was almost overnight that independence was given to the Congo. So there was a struggle to maintain the infrastructure and so on. But the other issue is that these colonies had been dependencies on colonial powers and they were members of the UPU by virtue of that relationship with those mother countries. So the colonies were UPU members and therefore they did benefit from this international system. When decolonisation occurred states became independent in the 60s which is the period that I'm talking about. For instance in 1964 there were 22 African states that were members of the UPU at that time when they met and signed the constitution in Vienna. But then of course most states that became independent were automatically admitted to the UPU. But then there were states, secessionist states, unilaterally independent states, rebel states if you like, that weren't given membership. I spent the archives yesterday trying to ascertain whether they actually applied for membership and I wasn't able to find any documentation to that effect. And I can only assume that they didn't. But they did issue stamps nonetheless even though they were not admitted to the UPU, they weren't members of the UPU. And they did so of course to assert sovereignty but the mother countries, and I'm talking about three states in my paper, I'm talking about Katanga which broke away from Congo, I'm talking about Biafra which broke away from Nigeria. Both those countries were not recognised by the international community, they didn't become members of the United Nations and therefore had no standing in the UPU. Rhodesia was the other case that I'm looking at, they were still legally part of the British Empire, still deemed to be a colony and their postal services were not recognised although stamps were used to send mail to Britain and only the British government did respond by declaring certain of their issues invalid and therefore imposed some sort of sanctions on the use of a certain redigion stamps. Well member states in this case Nigeria and the Congo Leopoldville were members of the union and when these succession of states broke away they wrote to the director general of the UPU and informed them that these states were issuing stamps illegally that they were invalid and that they should notify UPU members not to accept them. The UPU duwley did that, they sent out circulars to that effect and so in that sense the UPU role was actually to reinforce non-recognition of the sovereignty of these breakaway states and that was true not only as I say by Afro and Katanga but also of Rhodesia. So in effect the rules or the norms of sovereignty that prevailed in the 1960s were reinforced by the UPU.