Some of the largest, most fundamental changes that will affect South Africa are occurring and we are barely glossing over it. No, I am not zeroing in on another virus. I am not about to prattle on about the ANC’s never-ceasing internal battles. I am referring to the African Union and the dream of its leaders and founders to turn it into the next United States of Africa.
Do you think I am joking? Read some of these quotes:
The former deputy premier of Zimbabwe has called for a United States of Africa. [1]
The esteemed, flip-flopping, honourable member, Julius Malema, has also called for a united Africa with a common currency and an end to borders.[2]
Kwame Nkrumah, the first democratic president of Ghana, has called for a common African currency. [3]
And these are just the first few quotes I searched. You can find many more online.
The calls for a common currency should send chills down everyone’s spine, especially in light of what happened to the Euro. It largely contributed to the split of the European Union into two factions, the more prosperous north, and the struggling south. Even Paul Krugman, the famous leftist economist, has admitted that the Euro was a mistake and added wryly that it had only taken economists the European Project to figure that one out.
But consider these mere words? You will be surprised at the lengths our subversive leaders have already gone to accomplish their dreams.
The Eco is the proposed single currency for the entire Economic Community of West African States. It was scheduled to launch in 2020, but has since been delayed because of Covid-19.
The African Union has recently agreed to the game-changing CFTA or Continental Free Trade Area, which would create the largest free trade area in the world.[4] The agreement is scheduled to kick in in June of this year and would dramatically reduce tariffs and logistical barriers, to improve free trade levels by a third in only a year.
Another major goal of the African Union is complete free migration in Africa. The African Union has promised to deliver a continental passport this year, which would allow visa-free travel between the Union’s 55 member countries. Some politicians and diplomats have already been issued this passport, which illustrates that it is not just a fantasy.
At this very moment, six sovereign states of the East African Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda) have created a committee to begin the process of drafting a regional constitution towards combining their countries into what would be the largest country in Africa, the East African Federation. The groundwork is set to be completed in 2021 and in 2022 it will be implemented.
To a libertarian, the elimination of trade barriers is a great achievement. But the sudden free movement can cause potentially negative political upheavals and the increase in bureaucracies is another danger to any freedom-loving individual.
Like the European Union, it is almost guaranteed that a United States of Africa will cause economic upheaval. With a borderless union, it would allow richer countries to prosper and would trigger an exodus from the poorer and worn-torn states, like Sudan, creating a similar south vs north situation that now exists in Europe. I have already mentioned that one of the greatest storms the ANC and EFF are facing is the continued support for free migration, which had proved the downfall of many parties in Europe. Donald Trump won the Republican primary partly on the premise that he would clamp down on immigration and build that “beautiful, big, fat” wall.
A United States of Africa will face the same problem the European Union faced, namely idealistic politicians forcing individuals under a common political union, when there are such vast differences between the countries. So many different languages. So many different cultures. I mean, what do Egypt and South Africa actually have in common? And if you think that we had a problem because our centralized government sits in far away Pretoria, just consider what that would entail if the national government was in Kigali, for example.
If there are so many potential problems associated with this, why do politicians pontificate this? Because as Huxley noticed, we don’t just face demagogues, but also perfectly reasonable individuals who are hell-bent and convinced that we need them in even more powerful positions. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intention. We need a united continent to get rid of wars, that a united country would deter a World War like the one Hitler orchestrated. We need a United States of Africa to increase trade and enterprise. We need to come together to eliminate any tensions that exist between us.
Never mind that we can achieve the latter two without a political union, just consider if a “Hitler” came in control of a European Union or a United States of Africa. That is one thing these politicians never consider. What power he would have then, without having fired a single shot. And adding to that thought, what would have happened if Britain and France were not as big as they were before the First World War, and Germany was not unified? Would we have seen a global conflict? It seems like our global spats increase when politicians gain more power and decrease when they lose it.
No, the answer to global conflicts is not more integration, but more federalism and independence. The idea of city-states should be revived, which can always form alliances or pacts against a common foe. Politicians inject us with poison, and then offer more of themselves as the cure. These idealistic politicians should be largely ignored, who only seek greater power and mass parades, hiding some of their true goals behind well-meaning intentions.
About The Author:
Donald Brown is the producer at WorldView, a podcast that interviews interesting guests from around the world.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy2UhRbkF83FNH1Fzg8pplQ/videos
[1] https://www.polity.org.za/article/we-need-a-united-states-of-africa-ex-zim-deputy-premier-2019-01-30
[2] https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/united-states-africa
[3] https://thisisafrica.me/politics-and-society/africa-day-10-quotes-from-african-leaders/
[4] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/the-african-union-is-on-a-mission-to-transform-the-continent-by-2063-this-is-what-you-need-to-know/
