Page 229 - A People Called Afrika

The New Afrikan Union

of faux-independence, Afrikans still have not been able
to come out of the effects of the divide and conquer strat-
egy by which our fathers were alienated from one another.
To prove that Afrika is still very much under colonial mas-
ters, the topic of borders and their effects are still very much
a part of the Afrikan narrative. Borders are nothing but imag-
inary lines drawn in the minds of the colonized, oppressed
and marginalized Afrikan. They are a signature that says “we
were once together as brothers” before the white man came.

In the words of Olayemi Akinwumi, an historian from Nasar-
awa State University in Nigeria, “In African Studies, many of
us believe that the foundation for present day crises in Afri-
ca was actually laid by the 1884/85 Berlin Conference. The
partition was done without any consideration for the histo-
ry of the society. New borders were drawn through the ter-
ritories of every tenth ethnic group. Trade routes were cut,
because commerce with people outside one’s colony was
forbidden. The conference did irreparable damage to the con-
tinent. Some countries are still suffering from it to this day,”

We can’t begin to talk about how far back this conference
dragged Afrika, it was colossal and unkind. But we can certain-
ly talk about how to rise out of it and make a new pathway for-
ward. In the words of Kwame Nkrumah, one of the pioneers
of the OAU, spoken at the eve of the founding of the organi-
zation, “Without necessarily sacrificing our sovereignties, big
or small, we can here and now forge a political union based on
defense, foreign affairs and diplomacy and a common citizen-
ship, an African currency, an African monetary zone and an
African Central Bank. We must unite in order to achieve the
full liberation of our continent. We need a common defense

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