Dear Comrade,
When I was younger, I was told the story of the frog at the bottom of the well. The frog thought the sky was as big as the circumference of the well until it leapt out and beheld endless horizons. In the West, a close variant of this tale is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The moral of both stories is the synthesis and assimilation of new ideas and the effect of this on the subject. They are tales of how men overcome parochialism and the narrow-mindedness that is so prevalent today — the so-called century of globalization.
The challenge of our times is decidedly that of nationalism. This modern idea stubbornly insists that every nation must have an exclusive state and territory. If in doubt, rewatch some of the debates in the Republican primaries, pay keen attention to ANC campaigners in South Africa this year and take a second look at what’s unfolding in the Middle East. Nationalism is the fetter constraining globalization from reaching its logical conclusion — the free movement and association of all peoples in a truly flattened Earth. Our generation is allowed to flirt with the idea of a borderless world. There’s good evidence it will help us fight global poverty in this age of material abundance and gross inequality. Besides the enlightened self-interest, who owns the Earth?
The sooner we warm our minds to the possibility of a world with seamless borders, the sooner we will start expending energy on how to realize it. My brother Carlos Basurto diagnosed our unhealthy obsession with and worship of borders by citing a dirt-god syndrome. My sister Kat Regala added some cement by citing “the accident of birth.” I’ll not attempt to problematize it further, but we’ll look to developments elsewhere — Africa.
African countries have recently begun to relax travel restrictions for Africans within the continent. The justifying rhetoric has been pan-Africanism. Though packaged as such, this move has little to do with pan-African sentiment. Exacerbated by the pandemic, foreign tourist dollars to Africa were dwindling. Even before, Africa surprisingly didn’t attract as much traffic when compared with other world regions, our natural attractions notwithstanding. We probably have ignorance about the continent to blame.
Owing to steady economic growth, stable governance and improvements in key human development indicators, Africa has seen a growing middle class with greater purchasing power. These are the wallets that Kigali and Nairobi are ogling with their announcements of universal visa waivers. Countries like Ghana and South Africa have also entered reciprocal visa waiver agreements. This is a significant development if you have been monitoring the state of intra-Africa travel.
Up to this point, capitalist globalization had lived up to its promise for those outside the continent, easing travel to and within Africa more than it had for the native. This experience is not new. Since settler colonialism, the periphery has always been open to exploration and intercourse whilst access to the core remains an elusive dream for the colonized. Comrades who have traveled to Africa with the almighty blue (American) passport will attest to its power — race aside. Unfortunately, in many parts of the African continent, Africans are still considered foreigners. Much of the continent has been viewed by many outsiders as a monolith but has consistently failed to master sufficient unity to assert itself globally. Viewed in this light, President Paul Kagame’s declaration that “an African can get on a plane to Rwanda whenever they wish, and you will not pay a thing to enter our country” is thus a belated but welcome development.
“Free movement of people” (a phrase that occurs three times in the 24-paged Agenda 2063) is the ultimate step in the political integration of the continent. Agenda 2063 is the most radical collective vision that African countries have managed in the African Union (AU) era. It envisages “an integrated continent, politically united, based on the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance.” Strides have been made in this direction particularly through the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). I have for example been able to make trips around much of the seven-member East African Community (EAC) only with ID because of the EAC Common Market. West Africans can do the same in their region with the ECOWAS passport.
But I study at Notre Dame. This makes me part of the African elite. True integration must have deeper roots than economic convenience. It must have both a solid material foundation and steady philosophical scaffolding. For starters, I believe the latter to be a shared political economy curriculum for all young Africans with a focus on the shared history and of necessity, future of the continent.
Back to the frog and Plato, education has an illuminating effect. At independence, we were forced, then conscientized to believe in the nation-state. The same process could help us better appreciate the existential utility of a greater supranational African identity. Education opens up one’s mind to the possible. It inspires a new consciousness hitherto non-existent. The political and ideological work must start now.
In the next article, we will further this discourse and look at the form this education could take drawing lessons from Africa for the backsliding United States and the world.
Olemo Gordon Brian is a junior at Notre Dame studying political economy. He is currently studying abroad at SOAS University of London. He is deeply interested in Africa's development and the emancipation of man. You can contact Olemo at bolemo@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this Inside column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Olemo Gordon Brian is a junior at Notre Dame studying political economy. He is currently studying abroad at SOAS University of London. He is deeply interested in Africa's development and the emancipation of man. You can contact Olemo at bolemo@nd.edu.
