ENUGU, Nigeria — Julius Malema, leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters, used the Nigerian Bar Association’s Annual General Conference in Enugu to deliver a speech that will ruffle diplomatic feathers across the continent. Addressing thousands of lawyers and guests, Malema demanded nothing less than a single Africa: one president, one currency, one parliament and a unified military command.
He urged the dismantling of colonial borders, free movement for all Africans, and an end to what he described as reckless borrowing from international lenders.
The rhetorical sweep is intoxicating. With roughly 54 recognised sovereign states and more than a billion people, Africa’s aggregate natural resources and young labour pool are indeed formidable.
Pan-Africanism has long promised that unity could convert raw materials into homegrown industry and political clout. But talk of folding dozens of sovereign polities into a single executive authority collides with hard realities of history, law and power.
Practical steps towards integration already exist. The African Continental Free Trade Area, signed in Kigali in 2018 and operational since 2021, aims to knit markets together and has spawned payment innovations such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System.
The African Union’s long-term blueprint explicitly names a customs union, common market, African central bank and a single currency as eventual goals.
Yet these are multi-decade projects. The AfCFTA shows that trade liberalisation is possible; wholesale political unification is another order of magnitude.
Malema’s calls for visa-free movement echo official AU instruments. The Protocol on Free Movement of Persons exists on paper and signals intent, but so far only a handful of states have implemented meaningful visa liberalisation.
Bureaucracy, weak passport infrastructure, national security fears and political distrust make instant open borders improbable. A free movement agenda will yield benefits, but only if infrastructure, policing and legal harmonisation precede it.
The realpolitik obstacles are stark. Centuries of colonial border-making left states with different constitutions, languages, armed forces and elite bargains.
Leadership ambitions, ethnic fault-lines and competing external partnerships mean that centralising power risks fuelling, not ending, conflict.
External creditors and geopolitical actors will not stand idly by while sovereign instruments are pooled; they will adapt strategies to protect investments and influence.
African debt distress in recent years highlights why caution, not rhetorical bravado, is needed when rethinking financial sovereignty.
That said, Malema’s speech performs a valuable political function. It forces a hard conversation about why Africa exports raw commodities and imports finished goods, why intra-continental travel is so hard, and why many economies remain trapped in low value chains.
For advocates of integration, the pragmatic route is incremental: deepen AfCFTA implementation, expand PAPSS-style payment systems, build regional central bank coordination, and pursue mutual defence and police collaborations before talking of one commander-in-chief.
For policymakers and civil society in Lagos, Johannesburg and Abuja, Malema’s demand is a provocation and a mobilising cry. It should be met with evidence, roadmaps and debate rather than slogans.
The dream of a truly sovereign, united Africa free from external subjection is worth pursuing. The method will determine whether it becomes emancipation or a cause of continental fracture.
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