(Photo: economicstudents.com)
Since the establishment of the Organisation of the African Unity (now the African Union) on 25 May 1963, the United States of Africa has remained a highly cherished dream among great pan-Africanists like Ghana’s founding president Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Jamaican founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association Marcus Garvey, Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie and even former Libyan president Muammar Qaddafi.
But decades later, surges in ethnic and political violence experienced in pockets across the continent along with other forms of instability beg the question of whether this dream of a unified Africa was and continues to be a mere rhetorical statement or if it can one day come true.
During his 2013 speech in Harare after meeting the former chairman of the African Union Thomas Boni Yayi, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe argued that a leader was highly needed to move Africa beyond regional blocs and into the global super-league – a United States of Africa:
“Get them (Africans) to get out of the regional shell and get into one continental shell. The continent of Africa: this is what we must become. And there, we must also have an African head.”
This direct statement by Mugabe seems to have lost relevance with most if not all African leaders; pessimistic arguments prevail over the call for one African state.
Lindiwe Zulu, international relations adviser to South African president Jacob Zuma, has argued that Africa has lots of issues to tackle – political democracy, buoyant economy and effective state institutions – before attempting to establish a single African leader.
“There is a lot more to be done. We are still agonizing over sovereignty. When you call for one president, you are calling for ministers to serve under them, one parliament and one legislative process. There are too many things that divide us on political, social and economic levels. We need to have a common agenda and approach to human rights and development before we can talk about one president. We need to deal with democracy on the continent and leaders who think beyond themselves,” she maintained.
Meanwhile, Director of the Royal African Society Richard Dowden has described the entire call for a unified Africa as unworkable.
“It is a dream of totalitarian fantasists, not the people. Africa is becoming increasingly local. I’m in Kenya at the moment and the forthcoming election is all about ethnic arithmetic,” he added.
Aside the expression of ill hopes on the possibility of a United States of Africa, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade revealed during the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly that Africa was likely to become a unified state in 2017.
“At the level of the African Union, we are planning to reach the United States of Africa by 2017. Concomitantly with its plans for a United States of Africa, the AU is moving forward, inexorably, towards the establishment of its ‘Sixth Region’ which will institutionalize the African Diaspora as a formal member of that body,” he stated.
Be it all as it may, Africa still remains one of the continents bonded by culture and tradition – two variables which place the continent on a sure path to a unified government only if political heads of the AU find the best timing for such a momentous development.
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The mighty Oak was once an Acorn. The United States of Afrika is inevitable. Most people are expecting the Unification of the Continent to happen overnight but Afrika is to vast and complex for any overnight success. I am suggesting that the Union begins with tow or three states begin work on a inter-governmental Trade deal a Communication net work and a transparent plan for access to inter-regional resources and a Payments structure. A Tri-national Club structure could start the Ball rolling.
Africa will definitely unite and the name, already chosen, is the African Union.
The OAU, an organization of African heads of state, had only one mandate – political
independence of the entire continent. It achieved that and disbanded.
The AU, an organisation of African people, has the mandate to economic liberation, via,
among other things, mergers of the 8 existing economic bloc, the AfricanMonetary Union and, finally, political union.
These are hard documented plans, not imaginings, and I see union by 2035
The AU does its work quietly as in the merger of COMESA, SADC and EAC to form a
26-nation free trading area of over 600 million people from Namibia, counterclockwise to Libya including the D R Congo.
Now the task is ratifying everything and begin the TPFTA merger with CEN-SAD and ECOWAS blocs.
So the ideas of Hon Marcus Garvey, Osagyefo Nkrumah, Pres. Kenneth Kaunda,
Emperor Haile Selassie I, Mwalimu Nyerere and others are gathering speed towards
coming to fruition.
As much as I am a propagator for Africa Unity. There will be no United states of Africa. We could have one on paper but not a united people. How can we talk about a united states when our friends from the south kill their brothers and sisters who fought by them in their struggle while simultaneously viewing their former oppressors as partners. We kill ourselves with guns we don't make, over jobs that don't exist and go home to to celebrate with those that don't care if we exist.
Greed roams the streets of our blessed continent. The enemy is attacking from within. How can we talk about Unity when in CAR our brothers and sisters kill themselves for Religions none can claim ownership over. How can we talk about unity when in Congo, millions are rendered homeless for someone else's gain. Not only does greed roam the streets, but so does revenge.
A people who suffered in their hands of west now suffer in the hands of their own. For us to talk about African Unity, we need to restore Sudanese unity. For us to talk about African Unity, we need to put the African first. For us to talk about Unity, we need to come to a table and discuss the past. Someday, someone, some people would have to pay for the pain and misery inflected on others. In America, the non-conviction of leaders who perpetrate war has led to accumulated hate with demonstrates itself today in different ways. We need to go back to the drawing board.
Until we accept that the sun rises in the East, is hottest in the north (in Africa) and sets in the west, until Religion is seen as a point of unity and not differences, until we know we are as safe in Rwanda as we are in Egypt, or Congo as we are in Namibia, The United States of Africa is just Africans thinking of how to Copy and Paste what is working elsewhere. Policy transferability isn't a trick we pull out of a rabbit's hat.