The United States of Africa Is it Possible

Running head: THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA
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The United States of Africa: Is it Possible?
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THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA
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The United States of Africa: Is it Possible?
Besides the United States of America, other nations around the world’s continents have
unified towards a common course, but none have merged to form one sovereign nation under one
constitution. The African continent is one such an example, where all African countries have
joined to form the African Union. African leaders such as the late Muammar Gaddafi and
Zimbabwe’s former president, Robert Mugabe, have publicized their interests to unite Africa under
the United States of Africa (Smith, 2013). When considering whether African countries should
merge to form one nation, one should take into account the political ideologies, economic and
development levels, cultures, and levels of stability of all the countries. It would be imprudent to
create the United States of Africa, and such an attempt would cause discord, imbalanced interests,
and undermining of individual countries’ cultures and national values.
Each nation has specific principles and philosophies that are represented by the country’s
history, and national symbols of unity. Combining all nations to one country will mean that new
national symbols would have to be created, and such a move would undermine the specific values
possessed by these nations. According to Geisler (2005), national symbols are fundamental for a
nation’s citizens, as they represent a country’s existence and represent the resources, values, and
traditions that a country possesses. Hence, preserving these symbols are important as they give the
natives a sense of pride and a source of patriotism and will to dedicate their efforts towards a
common good (Geisler, 2005). If these symbols are eradicated through the creation of new symbols,
citizens will no longer have the conventional pride in their country and, hence, their source of
motivation would be reduced.
African countries, like all nations in the world, have widely varying political ideologies,
levels of development and economic constructions. African nations constitute liberalists,
THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA
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capitalists or communists, and not all nations would agree to link these forms to select one
appropriate approach. Moreover, African countries have different levels of economic and civil
prosperity, and reconciling these levels would be challenging, as it would cause disparity.
Countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and Algeria are strong economies and are
ranked as middle-income countries, while Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger make up Africa’s most
impoverished countries (Gundan, 2014; Rayman, 2015). Merging the countries under one nation
would make it difficult to share resources and distribute wealth evenly. Consequently, disputes
could arise, and peace would be undermined.
One may argue that merging African nations to form one country would remove trade
barriers, boost liberalism, and improve Africa’s rankings amongst the world’s economic powers
(Gwaambuka, 2016). While it is true that Africa’s economy could prosper through the removal of
tariffs and trade barriers, forming one country is not the only way through which the continent
could grow its economic strength. The African Union could be used as a platform for striking
consensus and agreeing on eradication of barriers to trade amongst its member states. Hence, trade
and economic prosperity cannot be used as a valid argument for uniting African countries as one
nation.
In conclusion, it is evident that uniting African nations to form the United States of Africa
would be unwise and would serve to perish the continent instead of improving its international
competitiveness. Degradation of national values and symbols, imbalanced distribution of resources,
and widely varying levels of economic prosperity are the key factors that make such a move risky.
Although Africa could perform better economically though uniting and eliminating trade barriers,
there are other ways to achieve this without having to jeopardize Africa’s long-standing harmony.
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References
Gundan, F. (2014, Oct 1). Kenya Joins Africa's Top 10 Economies After Rebasing Of Its Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). Forbes. Retrieved 1 20, 2018, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/faraigundan/2014/10/01/kenya-joins-africas-top-10-
economies-after-rebasing-of-its-gross-domestic-product/amp/
Gwaambuka, T. (2016, March 9). Muammar Gaddafi and The United States of Africa. The
African Exponent. Retrieved 3 20, 2018, from
https://www.africanexponent.com/post/muammar-gaddafi-and-the-united-states-of-
africa-2239
Rayman, N. (2015, Jan 6). The World's Poorest Regions Are not Always Where You'd Expect.
Retrieved 3 20, 2018, from
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/3656353/poorest-regions-world
Smith, D. (2013, Jan 21). Mugabe revives Gaddafi's United States of Africa dream. The
Guardian. Retrieved 3 20, 2018, from
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/21/mugabe-gaddafi-united-states-africa

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