When African leaders gather to celebrate Pan-Africanism, they often speak of unity as though it were simply an unfinished dream. But perhaps a more uncomfortable truth deserves attention: African unity has faced resistance from powerful external forces since the very moment modern Africa was created. They may have forgotten this. ALSO READ: Economic freedom remains Africa’s unfinished struggle: AfCFTA boss The fragmentation of Africa was not an accident of history. It was a deliberate political project. In 1884–1885, at the Berlin Conference, European powers partitioned Africa among themselves without a single African present at the negotiating table. Borders were drawn not to unite peoples, facilitate trade, or strengthen African civilisations. They were designed to serve imperial interests. Communities were divided, kingdoms dismantled, and economic systems redirected toward distant colonial capitals. ALSO READ: Time is ripe for Africa’s economic independence – experts The consequences remain visible today. More than a century later, Africa still struggles with borders imposed by others, economies designed for external markets, and institutions often operating within structures inherited from colonial rule. What was intended to divide continues to divide. ALSO READ: When the teachers fail the test: The crisis of Western human rights credibility And in my view colonialism was only the beginning. The independence era raised hopes for continental unity. Visionaries such as Kwame Nkrumah believed that political liberation would be followed by economic and strategic integration. He warned that political independence without continental unity would leave Africa vulnerable to new forms of domination. History proved him prescient. As the Cold War intensified, Africa became a geopolitical chessboard. The Cold War transformed many African nations into arenas of ideological competition. Governments, liberation movements, and military factions frequently became proxies for external powers pursuing their own strategic interests. Instead of consolidating Pan-African solidarity, divisions deepened. When the Cold War ended, many expected Africa to enjoy greater strategic autonomy. Instead, new forms of dependency emerged. Debt crises, unequal trade relationships, structural adjustment programmes, and conditional aid often limited the policy space available to African governments. Decisions affecting African development were frequently influenced by institutions and actors located far beyond the continent. Today, the players may have changed, but the competition continues. Africa’s vast reserves of critical minerals, energy resources, agricultural potential, and youthful population have placed the continent at the centre of global strategic calculations. Major powers compete for influence, investment opportunities, military partnerships, and access to resources. Whether the actor is East or West, North or South, the fundamental reality remains unchanged: every nation pursues its own interests. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. The mistake occurs when Africans fail to pursue their own interests with equal determination. The challenge facing Africa is not how to eliminate external influence. That would be impossible in an interconnected world. The challenge is how to engage globally from a position of strength rather than fragmentation. I have not yet seen this taken seriously in AU Headquarters. No external power fears a divided Africa because a divided Africa poses no strategic challenge. Fifty-four countries negotiating separately possess far less leverage than a continent acting collectively. Fifty-four fragmented markets attract less investment than an integrated continental economy. Fifty-four competing diplomatic positions carry less weight than a still missing common African voice. This is why the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area matters far beyond economics. It is not merely a trade arrangement. It is a strategic instrument for reducing fragmentation and increasing Africa’s collective influence. Similarly, investments in continental infrastructure are not simply development projects. Roads, railways, digital networks, and energy corridors are the physical foundations of unity. Every new connection between African economies weakens the legacy of colonial fragmentation. Equally important is intellectual independence. For too long, Africa has often been analysed, interpreted, and narrated by others. Africans must increasingly produce their own research, tell their own stories, and define their own priorities. Am suspicious of false experts on Africa and the value given to them by African leadership in all aspects. A continent that does not value its own experts and does not control its narrative risks having its future shaped by narratives created elsewhere. The lesson of the past 140 years is clear. External forces often benefited from African division, whether through colonial conquest, geopolitical competition, or unequal economic relationships. But external actors alone cannot explain Africa’s challenges. Fragmentation persists partly because Africans themselves have not always treated unity as an urgent strategic imperative. The responsibility therefore lies with today’s generation of leaders and citizens. The future of Africa will not be determined in foreign capitals. It will be determined by whether Africans choose integration over fragmentation, cooperation over rivalry, and continental ambition over narrow selfish calculations. The tragedy of Africa’s history is that others once drew the lines that divided it. The opportunity of Africa’s future is that Africans can choose to erase those divisions, not by changing borders, but by making them increasingly irrelevant and it is proven working for some countries. That is the true meaning of African unity. And it is the unfinished task of our time. The writer is a political and diplomatic analyst specialising on Africa and countries of the Great Lakes Region.
