Like the United states of America derived out of ‘United Colonies’, the black people’s Union should be renamed ‘United States of Africa’. I strongly believe the three-word naming will contribute to a single African Military force, currency and passport.
Looking up to Benjamin Franklin who popularized the concept of a political union in his famous “Join, Or Die” cartoon in 1754. A generation later, the concept of unity became a reality. Thomas Jefferson is credited as being the first person to come up with the name, which he used while drafting the Declaration of America’s Independence. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia had used the name “United Colonies” in a June resolution to Congress: “Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” Lee wrote. Surprisingly on September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted a new name for what had been called the “United Colonies.” The moniker United States of America remained since then as a symbol of freedom and independence. From mere cartoons, Benjamin’s concept of a political Union is now a reality.
Experience inherently comes with age. People who have lived longer have had more ‘life experience. But wisdom isn’t an umbrella term for higher intelligence, like a lot of people assume it is. And it doesn’t mean ‘all-knowing,’ like a lot of people assume as well. For Africa to walk the talk, it will take age and exeperience but also a sound and solid miltant like Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
The Abuja Treaty was establishing the African Economic community, signed by all member states except Eritrea and south Africa which came in after, it was was adopted on 3 June I991 and entered into force on 12 May 1994. The treaty aimed at fostering the social, economic and cultural development of the African continent through the integration of the economies of the various countries. The traety failed out on having a single African Military force, currency and a single passport.
From the Abuja treaty in Nigeria, the sirte declaration in Libya was given born announcing decisions to establish the present day African Union, speed up the implementation of the provisions of the Abuja Treaty, to create an African Economic Community, African Central Bank, African Monetary Union, African Court of Justice and Pan-African Parliament, with the Parliament to be established by 2000, Prepare a Constitutive Act of the African Union that could be ratified by 31 December 2000 and become effective the following year, Give the then President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria and former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa a mandate to negotiate for the cancellation of the African indebtedness and finally to convene an African Ministerial Conference on security, stability, development and co-operation.
The Sirte Declaration was followed by summits at Lomé in 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for the implementation of the African Union was adopted. The first session of the African Union Assembly was held in Durban on 9 July 2002. The inaugural session of the Pan-African Parliament was then held in March 2004. The Abuja-Sirte papers have visibly contributed though not felt my Africans. It is of a fake gesture to receive applauses for what is being done but not known and felt by the targeted beneficiaries called Africans.
If i may qoute Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, “Unite we must. Without necessarily sacrificing our sovereignties, we can forge a political union based on defence, foreign affairs and diplomacy, and a common citizenship, an African currency, a monetary zone and a central bank. We must unite in order to achieve the full liberation of our continent.” Can’t our cause-brand speak louder than oral-based conferences!
For the case of United states of America, Fitzpatrick said the words United Colonies were used by the Congress when it appointed George Washington as commander in chief in June 1775. The abbreviation U.S.A. had its origins as a way that government inspectors approved official gunpowder. Fitzpatrick said the army needed to have inspectors verify that gunpowder met standards, and it stamped “U.S.A.” on the casks as a mark, starting in August 1776. Also, the words “United States of America” appeared in the first draft of the Articles of Confederation on July 8, 1776, as it was submitted to Congress. The Articles weren’t ratified by the states until March 1781. Like Africa, it took them time but committment and determination assisted Americans in achieving their current day three-word brand.
The idea of a multinational unifying African state has been compared to various medieval African empires, including the Ethiopian Empire, the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Songhai Empire, the Benin Empire, the Kanem Empire, and other historic nation states.
During the late 19th and early 20th century the majority of African land was controlled by various European empires, with the British controlling around 30 percent of the African population at its peak. Today Africa is under indirect rule system where colonial powers use our own elected leaders as the local level of government, empowering them to tax, dispense law and maintain order. However, our African leaders can decisively forego the interests of impealists given their strong collaboration.
For the term “United States of Africa” was mentioned first by Marcus Garvey in his poem Hail, United States of Africa in 1924. Garvey’s ideas and formation systems deeply influenced former African leaders and the rebirth of the African Union.
Muammar al-Gaddafi upon being elected chairman of the fifty third National African Union in Ethiopia in February 2009, he told the assembled African leaders: “I shall continue to insist that our sovereign countries work to achieve the United States of Africa.” Even BBC reported that Gaddafi had proposed “a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for Africans to move freely around the continent”. Other African leaders stated they would study the proposal’s implications, and re-discuss it in May 2009. Pride and prestige as since delayed a very good agenda for the benefit of Africans.
The focus for developing the United States of Africa so far has been on building subdivisions of Africa – the proposed East African Federation under the guidance of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni can be seen as an example of this.
The Former President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, had indicated that the United States of Africa could exist as early as 2017. Bureacracy as played by Africa’s colonial masters is internally delaying the process.
The African Union, by contrast, has set itself the task of building a “united and integrated” Africa by 2025. However, Gaddafi had also indicated that the proposed federation may extend as far west as the Caribbean: Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and other islands featuring a large African diaspora, may be invited to join. A very provoking statement to Africa’s colonial powers that has inreturn delayed the existence of United States of Africa.
As a sound believer in African unity, Maummar Gaddafi also received criticism for his involvement in the movement, and lack of support for the idea from among other African leaders. A week before Gaddafi’s death during the Libyan Civil War, the then South African President Jacob Zuma expressed relief at the regime’s downfall, complaining that Gaddafi had been “intimidating” many African heads of state and government in an effort to gain influence throughout the continent and suggesting that the African Union will function better without Gaddafi and his repeated proposals for a unitary African government. Egomania and brownie points!
Gaddafi was ultimately killed during the Battle of Sirte in October 2011. While some regard the project to have died with him, Robert Mugabe expressed interest in reviving the project. Following the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d’état, Mugabe resigned as President. On 6 September 2019, Mugabe died. Cachet and laurels!
The nations of Eritrea, Ghana, Senegal, and Zimbabwe, have supported an African federation. Others such as South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria have been more skeptical, feeling that the continent is not ready for integration. North African countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and post-revolution Libya who have traditionally identified more with rival ideologies like Arab nationalism, Berberism and Islamism have shown less interest in the idea making it difficult for the Arabic, Berber and Islamic North Africa to merge with Sub Saharan Africa. Africans leaders must circumcize selfishness, introversion and self-absorption for the good of Africans.
Doubts have been raised about whether the goal of a unified Africa can ever be achieved despite many languages being spoken while ongoing problems of corruption, conflict, tribalism, civil unrest and poverty persist throughout the continent and continue to plague the people. The same story was in the “United Colonies”, it was and it is decision making-constructing a big difference between United states of America and Africa.
In the fictional Star Trek universe, the United States of Africa exist as part of the United Earth Government. Commander Nyota Uhura hails from Kenya, within the United States of Africa; Geordi La Forge’s home city, Mogadishu in Somalia, is in the African Confederation-it is unknown whether they are intended to be the same organization.
In the fictional Halo universe, the United States of Africa exist as a nation of the United Earth Government, within the United Nations Space Command.
Arthur C. Clarke’s 1987 science fiction novel 2061: Odyssey Three features the formation of a United States of Southern Africa.
The 2006 French-Beninese film Africa Paradis is set in the United States of Africa in the year 2033.
The 1990s cartoon Bots Master has a United States of Africa, and its President is one of the few people who believes that Ziv “ZZ” Zulander is not a terrorist.
In Kodwo Eshun’s Further Considerations on Afrofuturism (2003) a team of United States of Africa (USAF) archaeologists from the future attempt to reconstruct 20th-century Afrodiasporic subjectivity through a comparative study of various cultural media and artefacts.
As i write about the long awaited UNITED STATES OF AFRICA, I applaud the efforts of Pan-Africanists like Kwame Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Julius Nyerere, George Padmore, Cheikh Anta Diop, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Delany, Robert Mugabe, Haile Selassie, Patrice Lumumba, Molefi Kete Asante, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Henry Sylvester Williams and Hon. Senator. Chief Fortune Charumbira from zimbabwe who soundly envisioned at a unified African nation where all people of the African diaspora can live. With guidance from God, we shall push accordingly.
Reflecting from Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara a Marxist revolutionary, Julius Sello Malema and Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s political school of thought, Africa will realize the power of a three-word brand called the United states of Africa arising from the continent’s young men and women. The struggle continues!
Lukanga Samuel
+256 785717379
lukangasamuel55@gmail.com
The writer is a social development enthusiast and a judicious youth leader from Nakaseke District-Central Uganda
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