A few days ago, President Trump talked about the potential of Africa and how unity will benefit the continent.
He said, “the big advantage but Africa has tremendous value in its land and if they can unify and get together, I think it’s got tremendous potential.”
Coming from President Trump does not make it a novel idea.
Africa’s unity has always been a core idea of Pan-Africanism including cultural consciousness and identity. Pan-Africanism is a philosophy developed by Henry Sylvester Williams a Trinidadian around 1900 for Africans to unite and fight racial injustice, inequality, colonialism and promote cultural pride and identity and solidarity. It was also to achieve freedom, justice, self-determination and recognition of Africa’s human rights infringed on through imperialism, colonialism and apartheid.
Pan-Africanist leaders like WEB Du Bois, Marcus Garvey during the past century held many congresses to pursue African unity. In the 5th Pan-African Congress, African leaders like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah and others “urged colonial and subject peoples of the world to unite and assert their rights to reject those seeking to control their destinies”
We may ask if the idea was a pipe dream. Many African leaders could not carry the torch further and some may be PanAfricanists in name only.
To further seek Africa’s unity and emancipation, the Africa’s independence leaders organised to form a union – the Organization of African Unity (OAU). for an Africa that was united, free and in control of its own destiny.
These were lofty ideas and despite the fact that it will be beautiful when achieved, there have always been issues with the unity in question. While some Africans argue for unity others argue for economic cooperation among African nations.
Prior to the establishment of the OAU, there were two groups; the Casablanca group and the Monrovia group. The Casablanca group called for political unity and continental integration for the African people while the Monrovia group called for a market-driven economy and economic cooperation among African states. These two groups came together for the establishment of OAU.
The deeper issues that affects African Unity or political unity as previously outlined by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1962 in the lead up to the establishment of OAU, still exists till present, that is the attachment of African states to their respective colonial countries which stems from the adaptation of their sociopolitical cultures largely implemented through the British Commonwealth, later Commonwealth of Nations and French Community later functioning as Françafrique.
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These two systems bear heavily on the extent of independence achieved by the African nations and in particular the sought after unity.
The second was entanglements of military alliance with the commonwealth and the community.
Third, the different races existing in Africa and their allegiance. North Africa for example, at times see themselves as Arabs or middle east, the Saharan, the Caucasians and linguistic groups creating communication and cultural gaps. It begs the question; which language should be adopted as Africa’s language against many others which can sharply cause division.
Another fundamental question is the political structure. A federation or confederation or union. Will the structure guarantee sovereignties or bring about the issue of hegemony?
Having the United States of Africa could be the best but sovereignty is an unresolved aspect. How united can Africa be with many presidents? Which president would relinquish power for a single Central government? The OAU Cairo Declaration of 1964 resolved to respect the inherited colonial borders.
Even as Nnamdi Azikiwe was the proponent of the establishment of regional bodies like Ecowas, Africa was yet to achieve the desired unity but progressed to the African Union which was modelled after the European Union. The AU, shifting from the core principles of PanAfricanism, pursued economic integration, peace and democracy.
Can unity be achieved through economic cooperation, common currency, common railway system and collective security?
The African Continental Free Trade Area is one of the outcomes of such pursuit which attempts to unite Africa to a single market has many bottlenecks.
Mind you, the UN and EU sit on the board of the AU board of the Africa Peace Fund as the only two non-African observers.
While the outlined problems of the nineteen sixties still exist, the issue of sovereignty and employment rears its head in the case of Operation Dudula of South Africa.
Dudula in Zulu means to force out migrants who they believe take over their country, jobs and burden their resources, their ire always drawn against fellow Africans.
Forgetting various ways other African countries helped to fight apartheid, the South Africans known for xenophobia, may have forgotten; that they began to see fellow Africans as their problems who they chased out of the hospitals, workplaces, businesses in the name of anti-immigration. How can Africa unite in such a situation?
Julius Nyerere said “without unity, there is no future for Africa.”
A united Africa will make Africa stronger militarily, and more secure in economy and security, utilising their resources to better Africa and the lives of Africans.
One of the problems is weak, corrupt and less visionary leaders who would rather give away Africa’s patrimony and indulge in sophistry.
Africa’s unity can be achieved when the so-called leaders become free of external control to stand up for Africa and the peoples become free of mind control but the fundamental questions and allegiances unresolved upon independence of various nations are still largely unresolved till today. For how many years, centuries will Africa remain in a squatting position despite the treasures in their land?