Why was becoming united rather hard for Africa and the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

First of all, we have to note that Africa has never been united.  It is hard to imagine that it ever could be.  Therefore, becoming united has not just been “rather hard” for Africa.  Instead, it has been impossible. The main reason why it would be hard (or even impossible) for Africa to unite is the same reason why it was very hard for Austria-Hungary to unite and to remain united.  This reason is nationalism.

Nationalism can be defined as the idea that people “like you” are better than other people.  A person who is a nationalist prefers to be with other people “like” them.  They want to be part of a country that is dominated by people like them.  People who are “like you” are called, in social science terms, your nation.  This is not the same as a country.  Instead, it is more like an ethnic group.

This sort of nationalism has made it impossible for Africa to unite.  Even individual countries in Africa have a hard time uniting because of ethnic differences within their populations.  Rwanda had a genocide based on ethnic differences.  Kenya has had serious post-election violence along ethnic lines.  Nigeria has serious splits between different ethnic groups.  The list goes on and on.  Because various African nations see themselves as different from and superior to other nations, it is hard (and perhaps impossible) for them to unify as citizens of one country.

Austria-Hungary had similar problems.  It included people who are ethnically German, ethnically Magyar, ethnically Slavic, ethnically Italian, and more.  These people all felt varying degrees of nationalism.  The Slavs, in particular, did not want to be ruled by people who were ethnically German.  It was Slavic nationalists who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand (an ethnic German), thus setting off WWI and leading to the destruction of Austria-Hungary. 

In both African and Austria-Hungary, there are/were many different nations.  Because the peoples of these nations felt/feel nationalist impulses very strongly, it was rather hard (or even impossible) for these places to become united.