Is the world witnessing the makings of the United States of Africa? The African Union has taken a step toward integration of the continent. At its summit taking place in Kigali, Rwanda in July, the AU is launching a single, common electronic passport throughout the continent.
The 54-member body wants to allow free movement across national borders in Africa, creating “seamless borders” similar to the EU Schengen free movement deal, as The Independent reported. The AU plans to have visa-free travel for Africans visiting African countries by 2020, and will enact a free-trade agreement by next year.
The first group to receive the new passport in July includes AU heads of state and government, foreign affairs ministers, and the permanent representatives of AU member states based at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, has called the initiative symbolic and significant, and in a press statement said it is a “steady step toward the objective of creating a strong, prosperous and integrated Africa, driven by its own citizens and capable of taking its rightful place on the world stage.”
“I think on balance this is very positive, and one of the things that has become very obvious on the continent is two major crises,” Bill Fletcher Jr. — former president of TransAfrica Forum, host of “Arise” on WPFW and Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies — told Atlanta Black Star. “One is around migration and the other is money. And the AU needs to intervene on both. The illicit trafficking around money and the ability of people to move from country to country, that needs to be tied to a continental educational initiative,” he said. “When you see what happened in South Africa, it whips up into a right-wing populist cause, and it is very dangerous.”
The notion of a united Africa is by no means a new idea. Rather it is the stuff of folklore. Marcus Garvey spoke of the concept in his poem entitled “Hail! United States of Africa:”
Hail! United States of Africa-free!
Hail! Motherland most bright, divinely fair!
State in perfect sisterhood united,
Born of truth; mighty thou shalt ever be…
Bob Marley even wrote a song called “Africa Unite”:
…Africa unite:
‘Cause we’re moving right out of Babylon,
And we’re going to our Father’s land, yea-ea.
How good and how pleasant it would be before God and man, yea-eah! –
To see the unification of all Africans, yeah! –
As it’s been said a’ready, let it be done, yeah!
We are the children of the Rastaman;
We are the children of the Iyaman.
Fletcher also noted that while in the 1950s the dream of a united Africa did not incorporate a common political or economic approach, things have changed.
“First of all, the intention of the decision is something that has been in the works, almost since the start of the conversion of the OAU [Organization of African Unity] to the African Union, so that is not surprising,” Reuben E. Brigety II, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and Adjunct Senior Fellow for African Peace and Security Issues at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Atlanta Black Star. “This is not something that was clearly just decided or came out of the last summit. They have been on the move toward the idea of a single African passport, free movement of people, etc., for several years,” said Brigety, who served under President Obama as the appointed Representative of the United States of America to the African Union and Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
According to Ambassador Brigety, the real question is with regard to the AU plan in its implementation.
“Regrettably the Union, particularly the Assembly of Heads of State, is really quite famous, or has a track record of making pronouncements and decisions that often take a long time from implementation, if ever. For example, think about the decision that was taken two years ago by the Assembly of Heads of State to move toward the African Union financing itself as opposed to relying so heavily on donors. The implementation of that decision has been really hard without the actual steps necessary to actually make that more of a reality. They have promised to do so within five years now, and we will simply have to see. And I think that the same is true with regard to the creation of a single African passport as well as moving towards a true continental-wide, free-trade area,” Brigety added.
“So if they were able to do both, certainly on matters of continental free trade, it would create economies of scale for investment from non-African foreign direct investment, which could potentially be transformative for the continent,” Brigety said of the AU passport and free-trade plans. “One would presume that also it would boost inter-Africa trade as well by cutting down on trade barriers, etc. But this is even if one accepts on face value the intent behind the decision.
Read the rest here African Union Plans for Single, Common Passport, Free Trade Across the Continent, Raising Hopes for a Unified Africa - Atlanta Black Star
