As Africa continues to grapple with the multiple challenges of achieving inclusive development and reclaiming its place in the global capitalist system, there are various ideas, actions and policies that have continued to shape these processes. Amongst these are Pan-Africanism and regional integration. Pan-Africanism is both an ideological force and theoretical foundation that underpins the desire and actions of Africans to protest, resist and champion the cause of freedom for Africans both on the continent and in the diaspora (Oloruntoba 2015). Although it started in the United States in the nineteenth century (Prah 1999; Thompson 1969; cited in Tondi 2005), it continues to shape thinking and undergird political and civil actions towards the realisation of Africaâs development. Pan-Africanism provided the rallying point and ideological blueprint on which Afro-Americans like William Dubois, Marcus Garvey and others rode to challenge the racial oppression of the black race in the United States. It also provided the basis of interaction between Africans in the diaspora and those on the continent through various conferences, which started with the Manchester Conference of 1900. The series of Pan-African conferences provided avenue for young Africans, who would later become the leaders of their respective countries, to strategise how Africa can gain political independence from the colonialists. The 1945 Pan-Africanism Conference in London provided a rallying point for decolonisation, which eventually laid the foundation for securing political independence across the breadth and length of the continent. With the independence of Ghana in 1957, came the independence of other African countries in quick successions, at least in East and West Africa. Political independence in the southern parts of the continent followed much later, but also with much support from the rest of Africa and its diaspora population.
Pan-Africanism also provided the ideological foundation for the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU ) in 1963. Although there was a general understanding that for the continent to escape the scourge of neo-colonisation, unity is paramount, leaders of the newly independent African countries were divided on the best way possible to achieving the unity (Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2013). Thus, the leaders were divided into three groups: the Casablanca group, the Monrovia group and the Brazzaville group. The Casablanca group demanded immediate political and economic integration of the continent. Members of this group include Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Mali and Morocco. They were mainly left-oriented leaders who correctly interpreted the dangers that neo-colonialism posed to the newly independent countries. This was particularly important in view of the Cold War, in which the superpowers in the West and East fought their wars through proxy. These leaders believed that Africa needed a common front to be able to resist the indirect control that the West still posed, despite conceding political freedom. But more importantly, they understood the centrality of economic power in sustaining political freedom. Although Mazrui (1999) criticises Nkrumahâs maxim of âseek ye the political kingdom and all other things will be addedâ, the Ghanaian leader did not display any ignorance of the importance of economic power as a necessary ingredient of stable political order. His idea was that given the historical trajectories of African relations with the West, a united approach was required to be able to negotiate on African terms and for Africaâs development (Nkrumah 1965).
The Monrovia group was made up of 12 conservative countries who were also members of the Brazzaville group. The countries in both groups include Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Togo, Tunisia and Congo (Kinshasa), Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Cote dâlvoire, Dahomey (now Benin), Gabon, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic, Senegal and Chad. It is instructive that Duodu (2013) argues that these groups were labelled as radicals and conservatives by Western media because both Libya and Morocco, for instance, were cosy with the West, especially with the United States and France. Although Tunisia was regarded as conservative, the country provided for Algerian forces that fought against France in their bid to gain independence. A compromise between the two groups led to the formation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. The organisation made it one of its central objectives to end political colonisation in all parts of the continent. To its credit, this goal was achieved with the end of apartheid rule in South Africa in 1994. The achievement of the OAU in the political realm was its deficit in other spheres, including economics, culture, language, education and borders. Starting with the last, the leaders of the OAU agreed at the Cairo Conference of 1964 to leave intact the borders created by the colonialists. They did this to avoid conflicts, but unfortunately borders have fuelled conflicts and wars more than any other thing in post-independent Africa. This happened because of the forceful separation of people of the same kith and kin to different countries, with some of them living at the borders of two countries (Moyo and Nshimbii 2019). At the economic level, Pan-Africanism has not succeeded in ensuring that African countries trade more with one another than with external countries. Unlike Asian countries where complete decolonisation took place in terms of language, culture and education, African countries continue in mimicry, straddling between modernism and traditionalism. While the continent aspires to Euro-American modernism or seeking ways to catch up with the West (Mkandawire 2011), pre-colonial forms of exchange, knowledge systems and practices have been relegated to the background.
With the transformation of the OAU to the African Union (AU) in 2002, various efforts have been set afoot to realise the vision of building an African Economic Community (AEC ) as encapsulated under the Abuja Treaty of 1991. Eight regional economic communities have been recognised to serve as the building bloc to realisation of continental integration (ECA 2016, 2017). The recent formation of the African Continental Free Trade Area was the crystallisation of a series of negotiations among African countries. Although there was the formation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area, comprising the Southern African Development Community (SADC ), the Common Market for Central Africa (COMESA ) and the East Africa Community, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement is more ambitious and cast within the search for structural transformation of the continent through industrialisation. Studies have shown that despite the challenges that may confront the continental free trade agreements, if well implemented, it can lead to higher volumes of intra-African trade, bolster regional value chains and enhance the participation of African companies and products in global value chains (ECA 2017; UNCTAD 2016).
The link between Pan-Africanism, regional integration and development is located within the historical experiences and contemporary trajectories of Africaâs relations with other parts of the world. As Oloruntobaâs contribution to this volume shows, the nature and the character of the state in Africa naturally predispose it to serving external interests. It is not only weak and dependent, for many states there is sheer absence of capacity to negotiate meaningfully with other parts of the world. Thus, a Pan-Africanist project of regional integration that is focused not only on economic integration but also on people-to-people interactions, cultural exchanges and cooperation is needed to pave the way for the United States of Africa. This becomes compelling because, as Nkrumah (1963) argues in his book, the unity of Africa is necessary to push back the neo-colonial design which according to him is the last stage of imperialism (1965). Since independence in the late 1950s, inter-tribal wars, domestic conflicts and, increasingly, Afrophobia have tended to undermine Pan-Africanism. These internal contradictions undermine the collective resolve of Africans to unite and address their common problems. The club mentality of many of the post-colonial leaders and the similarity in their undue misappropriation of national resources have created socio-economic conditions that hinder transformation development. The struggle for resources and the need to escape harsh economic conditions have resulted in mass and sometimes forced movement of Africans from one part of the continent to the other. The resulting hostility from host countries has negatively affected unity in Africa. Besides, regional hegemons like Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt have for a long time been at loggerheads in their bids to become permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The African agenda that was so prominent in the 1990s during the presidencies of Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal faded into insignificance when these leaders left office. Thus, the project of Pan-Africanism has suffered some setbacks in the past decade. The continent therefore needs new leaders who understand the imperative of forging a Pan-African front and are prepared to provide both the intellectual and material resources required to re-crystallise Pan-Africanism.
Contrary to the earlier approach to regional integration, in which the state has always taken the lead, there are regionalisation processes in the cotemporary times that incorporate the voices of the people from below. The new regionalisation approach provides theoretical explanations to the involvement of non-state actors such as civil society organisations, informal cross-border traders as well as private sector organisations that are affecting or influencing the dynamics of regionalism in Africa and other parts of the world (Söderbaum 2004, 2016; Oloruntoba 2016). The success (or otherwise) of the regional integration agenda in Africa will be determined by the extent to which the benefits can be communicated to non-state actors. The African Union Agenda 2063 recognises the role of civil society organisations in its programming, through the Economic, Social and Cultural Council. The Council needs to be more involved in working with other civil society organisations in Africa to promote regional integration (African Union n.d.).
The African Union has recognised the African diaspora as the sixth region of Africa. The African diaspora contributes billions of dollars in annual remittances and the potential this group possesses for resource mobilisation is yet to be fully tapped (World Bank 2017). Scholars have shown that Africans in the diaspora run into...