Before 1884, Africa was one continental country. One would travel from Cape to Cairo or Dakar to a Dar without any requirement of possessing the so called passport. But when colonialists arrived, they divided Africa into the many segments known as countries today. This division of Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 served two puporses: for every colonial master to lay claim on particular territory; and to weaken Africans in case of resistance.

The divide and rule mechanism made it easier for colonizers to play Africans against one another. Divided Africans were easy to contain during the colonial era and thereafter. This can be seen in the secessionist movements after independence. Refer to Biafra (Nigeria), Shifta (Kenya), Cassamance (Senegal) and Eritrea. This, if anything, weakened our post-colonial regimes. All resulted from the fact that when colonizers were dividing Africa, they did not understand its internal dynamics. This is why some communities such as Masai, Fulani, Oromo, Somali and many more found themselves in more than one newly demarcated country.

Africa has ever since suffered from this division. Many African countries incur huge expenses in the quest of guarding these superimposed borders. In many African countries the budgets of the ministries of defense are huge and incurred to protect Africans from their fellow brothers and sisters. 

African countries spend millions of dollars on printing passports annually and curtailing fellow Africans from entering their respective countries. How much money have elections swallowed and will scoop from Africa shall the continent remain divided? How many African countries have already gone to war with their brothers and sisters just because they happen to find themselves in different colonial-created nations? Is this nationalism or irrationalism? How much money is spent on printing Identity cards in various African colonial demarcated countries?

How many unnecessary tensions has Africa experienced from those between Rwanda and DRC, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya, Cameroon and Nigeria etc?

Almost all African rulers know that their major weakness emanates from this fake division that gave birth to many fragmented and tiny states they rule. Again, they are not ready to reunify Africa by re-demarcating their colonial superimposed borders!  By doing this, whether intentionally or otherwise, African rulers end up being colonial agents or black colonialist themselves.

The United States of America is powerful not just because it houses genius people, but it draws its power from the fact that it is the union of over fifty countries almost the same number of African countries.  Just imagine if US were over fifty divided countries like Africa, how much money would it lose to such abracadabras like armies, weapons, passports, IDs, etc. Africa must not trap its insects in a bag. That will ultimately suffocate them. They will obviously end up spending their energy in destroying each other.

By Nkwazi Mhango

The author is a Canada based Tanzanian and author of Saa Ya Ukombozi.