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,
