African Needs Political Union First the Rest Next

When 44 African countries conceived and ratified, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda, many thought it'd become a game changer. Has it?  One of the reprieves the AfCFTA would bring was tariff relief. For over two decades, Zimbabwe's been grappling with sanctions.  What's the AfCFTA done to alleviate the situation?

The AfCFTA was termed as being historical. Is it really? Is it supposed to be Africa’s priority? Arguably, Africa needs to batten down the hatchets and pragmatically take  them on instead of gerrymandering or beating around the bush. Despite its good intentions, this moneymaking union has, up until now, proved, it won’t reach anywhere or significantly solve Africa’s endemic problems shall Africa remain divided politically. Africa needs a single political entity that can adeptly manage its humongous and wide resources that have never helped it.

The division of Africa is a colonial strategy ex-colonisers  envisage to keep exploiting Africa effortlessly and perpetually. Maintaining it isn’t only coloniality but black colonialism itself. Our people would like to have a single united country of Africa like Canada or the US even tomorrow. Contrarily, African rulers don’t want to hear such a thing. Their demigod presidency, easy, free eating, and freebooting are more important than the future of Africa. If this is a lie, I challenge them to tell Africa why’re they're able to unite commercially but not politically while political division is the root cause of Africa’s miseries?

To put this into perspective, let’s look at how Africa's divided and partitioned in 1884-85 at the infamous Berlin Conference that endorsed full invasion and thereby occupation, and colonisation of Africa. Essentially, the Berlin Conference created current objectionable and puny African countries. Practically, such countries are artificial if not colonial creatures, which make Africa an exception to the general rule in that almost other the countries in the world were created by the history, needs, and will of their citizens.

Apart from creating feeble and fickle African states, African national boundaries are but artificial and a colonial imposition. Yes, all nationalities African boast of are the creatures of colonialism. They’re but bastardised a version of the concept. Africans are no longer Africans but Cameroonians, Kenyans, Tanzanians, Ugandans, Zimbabweans, and whatnot not just because they decided to call themselves as thus.  Ironically, many such artificial and fake nations have gone to wars with each other fighting over such colonial and toxic boundaries and sovereignty.

When Germany, the host of this criminal conference was divided, it became feeble economically as well as politically. Therefore, it saw to it that it was reunited so as to become Europe’s economic powerhouse, which it currently is. Apart from Germany, Europe’s now coming closer to the total unification. 

Other affected countries are the North and South Korea, which are always trying to regain their unity and strength that African countries don’t want to. Despite being feeble, Yemen, once suffered the same scrape, which ended up regaining its unity. It is only Africa that’s become so blind that it failed to see the dangers its division and partition have caused since colonial times. A fool is the one bitten twice in the same hole. Why’s Africa allowed itself to be bitten twice in the same hole? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Can now Africa blame its former white colonisers while it is in bed with black and homegrown ones? Aren’t our rulers willing agents of colonialism simply because they’re geared by their greed and myopia? If commercial unification of Africa is a deal, why is it not political one? Who’s fooling whom here?

It is sad to note that our rulers are encouraging us to think as Tanzanians, Ugandans, Kenyans, Cameroonians, South Africans, Zimbabweans, and whatnot so that they can keep their foible presidencies while we badly lose a lot as a people and as a continent. They verbally say they’re for the reunification while their actions say they're for division and the status quo as enacted by colonial monsters. They preach water and drink vino. To fan the flames, the same rulers are ruining Africa by blessing and embracing corruption and other vices. Although it may seem as being too bellicose to say that our rulers are our modern colonial monsters simply because they’re using our borders to foster their private interests, if our people need to be reunited, why’d our rulers refuse them to do so by clinging unto power, which belongs to the people?

In sum, seriously speaking, if indeed our rulers have any futuristic and good intention for Africa, they must reunite Africa as soon as possible so as to have a single country like Africa was before 1884. The AfCFTA and the like are wasting our time as our potentates buy more time to keep on dividing us for their personal and myopic interests. All those who clinging to power through such half-baked shenanigans are but mere johns if not stage-door Johnnies and agents of colonialism that have betrayed Africa. Union first, the rest next. Africa reunite or perish.

Source: Zimbabwe Independent, today.