The unification of Africa appears to be a forgotten agenda, a mission with fewer protagonists and enthusiasts. Others disagree though. The unification of Africa is not a forgotten ideal but merely a complex process going through a milliard of very significant challenges. However, the topic doesn’t currently form the central focus of most African leaders or citizens.
For some of us who lived through the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s when pan-Africanism and the idea of a united continent were hot topics and almost synonymous with intellectual growth and maturity, to see the unification of Africa take a back seat, is sometimes so nostalgic as to be completely lost about the future.
The ideals of a united Africa aimed to promote solidarity, address and redress old injustices, oppression against colonialism and all forms of slavery, re-member broken cultures and generally articulate the dignity and sovereignty of Africans.
It was the mission of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) established in 1963 when many countries were still weighed down by the yoke of colonialism and racial prejudice.
The unification of Africa under the OAU, which admittedly was spearheaded by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah met with a number of hurdles and resistance. However, it had limited success, especially on the strategic approach via strong Regional Economic Blocs (REBs) that would gradually lead to total unification, which was Mwalimu’s preferred route rather than wholesome unification as was preached by Nkrumah.
Africans have every reason at this point and time to ask: “Which way Africa?” The African Union (AU) that succeeded the OAU has adopted Agenda 2063, an ambitious and long-term development framework that envisions an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa by the year 2063. Truth be told, that won’t happen until Africa ends dependence on foreign aid and silences the guns in Eastern DR Congo, the Sudan and other regional hotspots of senseless conflict.
United we stand, divided we fall. It is almost an immutable law of nature that Africa has opted to ignore but at its own risk and peril. Many African leaders prefer clinging to narrow national interests and development strategies that ignore the bigger picture. Some think it is the best way to show how different they are. But let us not be fooled. We all sail in the same boat, fellow Africans.
The AU was established in 2002 with a mandate to intervene in cases of war, genocide (as a lesson from the Rwanda experience) and violations of human rights.
Here, the AU here has not done a commendable job. Rwanda and DR Congo are almost now taunting, adhering to, and respecting the terms and conditions of a peace deal brokered by Qatar, basically acting as an errand boy of the United States.
The AU also is doing almost nothing about violation of human rights across the continent. Actually, it could be seen like the AU too adheres strongly to the defunct OAU doctrine of “non-interference in the internal affairs of members states.”
I know it is not an easy task to promote pan-Africanism in the present context. It could be something that borders on madness even. But, if our leaders could do some slight justice to our generation and that of our children’s children, then they should at least stop for a moment to both honour and remember those before them who genuinely worked for Africa’s unification. Without unity, Africa stands to lose even those small gains it has garnered playing the world stage. That time to wake up is now.
🔴 Munyaga’s contact is mmunyaga@gmail.com
