Julius Malema Calls On A United Africa. “It’s not the problem of Nigeria, It’s not the problem of Zambia, It’s not the problem of Kenyans,… It is the problem of the black race. When the Chinese started discrimination to Africans, it was not about the country but the color. Africans we must unite as one people with a single currency produced in Africa if we must succeed. Even the killing of George Floyd was all about the color. We must fight for our own destiny.
Julius Malema Calls On A United Africa Under One Currency, Leadership, and Language. Julius Malema is known to support the idea of united Africa against the rest of the world. He is passionate about ‘decolonizing’ and forming a united Africa, and he wants that to happen as soon as possible. Malema recently visited Rwanda during the 5th Pan-African Parliament. There he spoke about the importance of a united Africa.
He was interviewed on Monday morning on the sidelines of the gathering about the challenges facing the continent, including corruption and how to support economic growth.
On the former, he expressed his support for a judicial body that would act against corruption in Africa because that would send the message that corruption doesn’t pay.
“We need to ensure we come up with one binding legislature for all African countries to ensure that they comply with anti-corruption programs.”
He added that a judicial body on the continent would hold leaders accountable.
“Many corrupt individuals on the continent go unpunished and, as a result, people think that corruption pays.”
He blamed corruption for being at the core of African underdevelopment.
Although Malema was generally supportive of free trade agreements in Africa, he said it was understandable that countries would be wary of implementing such reforms. He pointed to the fact that some countries might attempt to abuse such freedom to fraudulently market products from outside Africa, particularly from China, as those they had produced themselves.
Despite this, he said, “I see that many are beginning to change heart and sign, seeing that this would be good for the continent.”
He had earlier described the opening address at the event by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame as “a wonderful speech with more emphasis on free trade and free movement of persons in our continent”.
“I think it’s a very important message because we need to unite the continent and we can only do that if we move freely, if we move goods freely, if we’ve got one currency and, ultimately, we’ve got one continent under one leadership, with institutions that have got biting teeth – particularly on other countries that are engaged in corrupt activities and violation of human rights.”
Malema had called for the continent to develop a shared language.
He suggested Swahili would be a good choice. He said the benefit of a widely spoken African language would be part of “decolonizing Africa” and keeping a united Africa.
Julius Malema Calls On A United Africa Under One Currency, Leadership, and Language Against the Recent South Africa Killings (VIDEO)
Julius Malema, the leader of the South African opposition party the EFF, recently called for an integrated United States of Africa. The call received widespread support, but questions linger about the sincerity of Malema’s call and its practicality
Nevertheless, to focus on the issue of the United States of Africa as such, this discussion did not start with Malema. It has been going on for decades, with such proposals being pushed by eminent black activists like Marcus Garvey. Various other leading black figures, such as Kwame Nkrumah and Haile Selassie, have been fierce proponents of such ideas. In fact, this is what eventually led to the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963.
The proponents of a United States of Africa are mostly pushing for a federal form of government, where there is one single government and power is centralised. It would also mean that member states of the African Union would have to surrender some of their sovereignty to one singular African government with jurisdiction over all states.
What are the arguments in favour of a United States of Africa?
There are many arguments in favour of the creation of the United States of Africa. Those arguments can largely be grouped under political, economic and social gains. The political gains are more stable government, increases in global power and prominence, and less foreign intervention.
The economic gains are vast increases in trade, a regulated and centralised economy, and power in the political marketplace. Consider that, in 2016, intra-African exports made up 18 percent of total exports, compared to 59 percent and 69 percent for intra-Asia and intra-Europe exports respectively. Hence, a borderless continent would allow for free trade and the removal of unnecessary tariffs.
Paul Kagame/Flickr
The social gains are a greater sense of community and pride, reduced or eliminated ethnic conflict, and stable governments who can provide services to citizens.
Those pushing for the idea of the United States of Africa have consistently argued that a unitary African government would represent Africa equally, particularly in the distribution of resources and funding. This would therefore enable Africa to administer its own resources more efficiently in an equal manner and in the same vein, removing the artificial barriers we recognise today as nations.
What are the arguments against it?
The proposed integration has had its criticisms, particularly the fear that independent African countries would have to relinquish their sovereignty to enable the establishment of one government. More stable economies, such as that of South Africa, with higher GDPs, have had citizens arguing that an integrated state would be a burden and they would not benefit much from the poor economies. Already the economic migration to South Africa has triggered such objections, resulting in xenophobia.
The dream of a United States of Africa cannot be realised when the continent is so impoverished and deeply divided. Consider, for example, that most people in the Arab world on the continent do not want to call themselves Africans. Equally, issues like corruption, dictatorship, neo-colonialism and the failure of such bodies as the Africa Union to foster economic and political independence of member states have been grave impediments. Lindiwe Zulu, South Africa politician and international relations adviser, confirmed this in 2013 when she said, “When you call for one president, you are calling for ministers to serve under them, one parliament and one legislative process. There are too many things that divide us on political, social and economic levels. We need to have a common agenda and approach to human rights and development before we can talk about one president. We need to deal with democracy on the continent and leaders who think beyond themselves.”
The dream of a United States of Africa cannot be realised when the continent is so impoverished and deeply divided.
There have been some small efforts to foster unity among Africans, such as the introduction of the AU passport to eliminate visa barriers for Africans to travel in the continent. As it stands, Africans need visas to travel to 54% of their continent.
The dream of African unity will continue being derailed as long as Africa fails to fight neo-colonialism and a new form of colonisation, especially from the former colonisers and now countries such as China. Hordes of African leaders were recently in China, for the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting, an initiative by the Chinese government to ‘co-operate’ with African countries for the continent’s ‘development’. It is unfortunate that the development they seek is but a thinly veiled stampede for Africa’s resources. On such a trajectory, the United States of Africa will remain a mere dream.