A United States of Africa Won’t Work

February 1, 2008

This letter was written in response to Old Guard Won’t Lose Teeth in the United States of Africa.

I don’t support the whole idea of uniting African countries into one state. It is a naïve idea that will take us nowhere and may lead to more civil wars and hatred. The United States of America was not like us when they unified their states. They didn’t have as many cultural differences as Africa does.

Let’s start with how different African countries observe the weekend. Most North African counties and some parts of Nigeria have weekends on Friday and Saturday and the rest of Africa, Saturday and Sunday. How many working days will a United States of Africa have?

What about the constitution and the rule of law? Some African countries have a lot of misunderstanding on how to enforce laws. Some want religious law, others have been doing nothing to respect constitutions and have resolved to use the military to scare people. Do you think these differences will disappear once we have one state?

Another serious issue to settle regards the North African states membership in the Arab League. Will they withdraw their membership for the purpose of uniting Africa, or will they stay and have the United States of Africa become a member of Arab League? If so, then are we going to be African or Afro-Arab? What about our relationship with Israel?

Let’s be serious and careful about this trick of proposed unification.

David Markus Ntali
Mason City, Iowa