The East African rift marks the northern boundary of the Nubian (West Afric
an) and Somalian (East African) plates, and has formed by horizontal stretc
hing due to the separation of these plates(1). South of similar to 20 degre
es S, any expression of deformation or seismicity due to the relative motio
n of these two distinct plates vanishes, although the boundary must continu
e until it intersects another plate boundary. The nearest such boundary is
that of the Antarctic plate, marked by the Southwest Indian ridge. But prev
ious analyses of plate-motion data have indicated no significant difference
between Nubia-Antarctica and Somalia-Antarctica motion(2,3). Here we show,
using: a large compilation of plate-motion data, that Nubia-Antarctica mot
ion does differ from Somalia-Antarctica motion, and we determine a relative
angular velocity of the two plates that has compact confidence limits. Our
analysis places the pole of rotation near to the southern limit of African
seismicity, implying that the southern part of the Nubian-Somalian plate b
oundary is a diffuse zone of convergence (up to similar to 2 mm yr(-1)), wh
ereas up to similar to 6 mm yr(-1) of separation is accommodated across the
East African rift-about half the separation rate of the slowest mid-ocean
ridge.