In this segment we seek to share personal knowledge and experiences of citizens traversing the continent from Cape to Cairo and Dakar to Djibouti from the perspective of Africans to gain a clearer understanding of our history, present day life, developments and main attractions in all the 55 African countries.
We will get to understand the characteristics that make up the individuals in each of the regions, how they may be related or what they have in common with a view to building a case for regional and ultimately continent wide integration and cooperation.
Authors description of AFRICA
Africa is arguably the most beautiful continent in the World, it is endowed with an abundance of arable land, natural resources, but in our opinion its people are its most valuable resource given their youthfulness, vibrance, diversity, resilience, and zest for life. These are just a few adjectives that come to mind when asked to describe Africa.
If given access to education and the ability to connect with the rest of the world, the young population will be in the position to take advantage of the opportunities available in an increasingly digitally connected world.
The natural affinity of young people to be curious and their eagerness to learn can be exploited to accelerate the dissemination of knowledge and skills to enable them to become productive members of a borderless and connected global community. More initiatives like SIFA will need to be rolled-out to drive and build occupational skills development for youths at scale.
Africa needs to advance the agenda of breaking down the barriers brought about by the divisive and exploitative agreement reached by former European colonizers at the Berlin Conference of 1884 – 1885 and focus on initiatives that will integrate the continent. The agreement reached at this conference was designed to divide and conquer Africa, give unfettered access to Africa’s resources, weakening the ability of Africans to unite and oppose such occupation. The Africa depicted in the map below is an indelible legacy of the Berlin Conference.
Notably two African territories, one in the west and another in east, Liberia and Ethiopia respectively were never colonized. Liberia in West Africa was never colonized because it was mainly a country for freed slaves who wanted to return to Africa. … Ethiopia (which was known as Abyssinia at the time) was a strong country with a thriving empire. The Italians had attempted many times to colonize Ethiopia. This led to the First and Second Italo-Ethiopian Wars.
Initiatives like the recent signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) by 54 of the 55 African states is a positive step in the right direction. Fortunately Nigeria and Benin signed early in 2020 all be it belatedly leaving only Eritrea who have not signed at the time of writing this post. It is important that Nigeria is part of this given its status as Africa’s largest economy by GDP and population. In fact Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt economies make up roughly 50% of Africa’s total GDP.
The total African GDP is reportedly $2.58 trillion in 2020 and is expected to grow to $3 trillion within the framework of the ACFTA by 2025. The inclusion of Nigeria in this trade bloc is crucial to enable the continent to foster easier intra-continental trade and most importantly for Africa to negotiate as a unit for other international trade agreements with the rest of the World. The video above talks about the vision, while the short video below gives a great summary on the project and potential obstacles that will need to be overcome.
