The AfCFTA Diaries #1

It’s been a helluva news week on the African continent.

The horrific rape and murder of two young South African women, the wave of violence against Black nationals from Black South Africans and the usual hullabaloo of internal wrangling of Ghanaian politics and it’s not quite Friday yet.

Can it be Friday already? I’m about done with this week. *sigh*

For students of international politics, the perennial spate of xenophobic violence in South Africa leaves one with a sense of disquiet.

Especially in light of the work that needs to be done in order to get the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) up and running; because once fully operational, this trade bloc will have a combined population of 1.2 billion people and a combined gross domestic product of more than US $3.4 trillion. It will be the largest trading bloc in the world.

Simply put – with AfCFTA in place, it’ll be easier to trade across borders, it will be easier for professionals to barter their skill set in other African countries without the hoops one has to jump through presently and it will be easier for Africans to travel, exchange goods and services and build wealth within this continent.

As US President Trump would put it “This is Bigly.”

However, whilst following the reports on the violence in South Africa and the responses from different African countries, a strange thought occurred to me: this cannot be a coincidence.

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Think about it:

• The main objectives of the AfCFTA include creating a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments.

• Africa has three economic powerhouses: Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa and these three countries account for more than 50 percent of Africa’s cumulative GDP.

• Nigeria was one of the last countries to sign up to the AfCFTA agreement and for good reason; as one of Africa’s biggest economies they cited genuine concerns that the country could be flooded with low-priced goods, which could ruin efforts to encourage local manufacturing and expand farming projects.

• In spite of the wake of this recent wave of xenophobic violence, South Africa is currently hosting the World Economic Summit and Nigeria, Rwanda, Congo and Malawi have pulled out to signal their displeasure with the attacks.

• South Africa has since closed its embassy in Nigeria.

• Many African performers have also withdrawn from a concert for the same reason.

• And next year, if all goes according to plan, South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa is to take the seat as leader of the African Union.

Looking from the outside in, it’s total chaos.

Now my question is:

With the inception of AfCFTA which will ultimately make the African continent a united, economic powerhouse, who has the most to lose?

Whom does it benefit if Africa’s largest economies are at loggerheads?

Whom does it ultimately benefit if Black South Africans riot and attack Black Africans from across the continent?

Who is the winner if the ideals of pan-Africanism go up in flames?

I do not believe in coincidences.

The sooner the African Union selects a team to work with the South African government to resolve this issue in a practical manner, the better for us all.