A Case for the United States of Africa

Kwame Nkruma of Ghana
In the popular imagination, especially outside the continent, many see Africa as a single country. In fact, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, is reputed to have thought that Africa is a country. Part of the task of those who teach Africa, especially outside the continent, has been to insist not only on the fact that the continent has fifty-three (fifty-four, if one adds Western Sahara) countries but also to point out the diversity of cultures in the continent. However, this emphasis on the difference of African peoples, even though laudable, is troubling because it sometimes makes calls for a united Africa sound like a vain dream.

The dream for a united Africa is one that has a very long history, beginning with the Pan-African vision of people the W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, Africans in the diaspora who saw the matter in racial terms. However, it was Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana who dreamed that the flourishing of the continent was inextricably linked to its geographical unity. That is why he insisted that African independence from colonial rule should be closely followed by African unity, so that the continent could make one country.

Political machinations from both in- and outside the continent, however, torpedoed this vision and gave Africa the Organization of African Unity (later converted into African Union), which had the respect of the territorial integrity of each country as its central plank. Thus, African countries became independent as separate states with some, such as Equatorial Guinea, having a population of only 700,000 people today. However, in a world where size matters in international politics and trade, African countries can hardly flourish if they do not band together to have a single strategy and vision. A country like Equatorial Guinea, for example, can hardly strike a good bargain with countries such as China, India, or the United States. The Oxford economist, Paul Collier, has noted that the small size of some African countries is problematic.

It of course does not follow that smaller countries do not flourish: there are many examples in Europe to prove that small countries can flourish economically. But smaller countries have come to see the importance of forming economic blocks - thus, the European Union. African countries have been forming economic blocks but this is not enough because major countries such as China, India, the United States, etc., have been striking bargains with individual countries rather than with blocks. Thus, for Africa to flourish in our contemporary world, the continent must unite to form one country. This would have the dual advantage of not confusing those who already think that Africa is a single country and uniting the people under a single vision.

This idea is being discussed in the African Union but the mutual suspicion among countries seem to make its realization an uphill task. Apart from the fact that Africans have been made to imbibe their fictitious identities as Nigerians, Egyptians, Cameroonians, Gabonese, Sudanese, Moroccans, South Africans, Zimbabweans, etc., the various presidents of these countries see the move toward unity as an attempt to deprive them of their ability to lord it over their own small portion of the continent at the expense of their people. But Africa cannot flourish in our contemporary world without a single, unified vision. Africans must come to see that such unity is in their own interest and so force their leaders to pursue the vision of a united Africa.

Listen to this inspirational song by Bob Marley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L07lXY7hZQw