ZIMBABWE today joins the rest of the continent in commemorating Africa Day at a time the majority of the 54 sovereign countries in the bloc are facing economic difficulties, leaving their citizens wallowing in abject poverty.
This is despite the abundance of riches on the continent, mostly minerals and a huge human resource base.
Colonialism is hugely blamed for the crisis in Africa today despite it having been dismantled and replaced mainly by elected governments since the 1950s.
It is colonialism that resulted in independent African countries then in 1963 to meet in Addis Ababa to form the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to strategies and execute the liberation struggle on the continent.
Presidents Kwameh Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Kenya, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and many others had a conviction to liberate Africa and their desire was finally fulfilled when all African countries attained independence.
They waged a good fight, but failed on one score — to have a united continent under one flag to fight the economic emancipation of Africa.
Nkruma tried, as did the assassinated Lybia president Muammar Gaddafi, to push for a United States of Africa.
The OAU has since morphed into the African Union, but African countries are fragmented — a situation costing the continent in international trade. The continent does not speak in one voice.
A country’s specific interests take precedence over what should be binding Africa as a whole.
Africa needs to change tact and use its abundant wealth of about US$2,5 trillion per annum to benefit its people.
But it can only do that if it is united and speaks with one voice.
Radicals like former Zimbabwe deputy prime minister in the inclusive government Arthur Mutambara have been calling for the unification of all the 54 countries into one.
“We need the United States of Africa — a country — and not a union of sovereign states. We need to abolish national sovereignty and embrace continental sovereignty.
“We must pull our individual national sovereignty into one indivisible and all-inclusive Pan-African sovereignty. In order to leverage Africa’s 1,2-billion people, massive natural resource base and potential $2,3-trillion GDP we need to operate as one country and not a union of sovereign states.,” Mutambara said way back in January 2019.
“We need one government, one head of state and government, one legislature and one Judiciary system. China, India and the US are doing just fine with one national leader (President or PM),” surmised Mutambara.
“We surely do not need 54 Heads of State in Africa. As a minimum, we should have a federation of all the African states with devolved authority but driven by one strong and overarching central government where all sovereignty is reposed, as is the case with the United States of America.”
It remains to be seen if the continent will one day have a United States of Africa for the betterment of its people.