Pan-Africanism and Regional Integration in Africa in the Era of Globalization: A Systematic Analysis Utilizing Consciencist Methodology

Abstract

In this chapter, Abdul Razak Iddris broaches the idea that the Pan-African dream of a United States of Africa is still being expressed by Africans on the continent and those of African descent all over the world. He demonstrates that since the attainment of political independence in the 1950s and 1960s, African leaders have consistently reaffirmed their willingness to forge mutually beneficial economic and political alliances in order to enhance the social and economic development of people of Africa. This desire to achieve greater economic integration of the continent, he maintains, has led to the establishment of the most extensive network of regional organizations in the continent. Nonetheless, the ghost of the Berlin Conference (1884–1885) that divided Africa into specific spheres of influence and control, Iddris concedes, has continued to haunt the continent for many years after its independence from colonialism, thereby reinforcing the fragmentation of African economics. He also proffers that by echoing the calls of Kwame Nkrumah and other Pan-Africanists that Africa must Unite, African regional integration is seen or considered as a key driver and the way forward for the structural transformation of African economic development.