The founding president of independent Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, sounded a warning to Africa during the historic summit that gave birth to the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa in 1963.
“If we do not approach the problems in Africa with a common front and a common purpose, we shall be haggling and wrangling among ourselves until we are colonised again and become the tools of a far greater colonialism than we suffered hitherto.”
Sixty-three years later, the jury is still out on whether African leaders are acting as a united front in tackling the continent’s problems, as advised by Nkrumah.
As the continent celebrates Africa Day on May 25, it is also worth examining whether Africa has moved closer to becoming the independent continent envisaged by Nkrumah and his generation of pioneers for a new Africa.
Is Africa now completely in charge of and in control of its vast mineral wealth?
Or has it become a fountain for a new form of colonialism, exporting its minerals daily to China, Russia and the old colonial powers in Europe and the US?
Do African leaders still go cap in hand to beg for crumbs and sell their countries’ souls to the world’s superpowers?
Africa Day is generally marked as a day for celebration, a day to rejoice at the steps taken by previous generations to fight against and eliminate the effects of colonialism, slavery, land dispossession and to chart a new course for a prosperous Africa.
Six decades after the formation of the African Union’s predecessor, the OAU, perhaps it is worth reflecting on whether the continent really has reason to celebrate.
Is the African dream, driven by the current generation of leadership’s ambitious Agenda 2063 on course?
News headlines continued to paint a picture of a continent in turmoil ahead of Africa Day this week, from a drone strike that killed 10 people in Mali, to gunmen abducting 39 students in Nigeria and four citizens killed during fuel protests in Kenya.
There was even more bad news. An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus killed more than 100 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. In South Africa, citizens continued nationwide protests against the influx of illegal immigrants who, through the years, have poured into the country through its porous borders, aided by corrupt border officials colluding with syndicates.
A lack of political will to deal with immigration has seen undocumented people battling for survival in the lower ranks of the economy, while South African citizens grapple with high levels of poverty, unemployment and the rising cost of living.
In turn, South African citizens’ voice has been met with calls for retaliation and tougher action against the country by, among others, Nigeria and Ghana, which have offered to repatriate some of their citizens.
This happens against the backdrop of revelations by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that at least 990 people have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea this year alone while trying to flee Africa for Europe.
The IOM noted in April that this figure is more than 460 higher than during the same period in 2025 — a surge of more than 150%.
Last April, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) revealed that approximately 3 500 children died or disappeared while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean migration route to Italy between 2015 and 2025.
Unicef also noted that between 2015 and 2025, at least 20 803 people died or disappeared in the central Mediterranean. The agency painted an even gorier picture, saying many shipwrecks on this perilous migration route from North Africa leave no survivors or go unrecorded.
This, it said, made the true number of people dying or disappearing practically impossible to verify, meaning the figure could be far higher.
The big question perhaps is why Africans are risking life and limb, fleeing their countries of birth for South Africa and Europe in droves. Europe has also taken a hard line against African migrants who continue to arrive in large numbers.
Perhaps an even more crucial question Africa needs to confront and answer is exactly what Africans are running away from.
This is especially significant because the continent’s wealth in raw materials, natural resources and its ability to produce food surpluses capable of feeding the rest of the world has never been in question.
Various research studies by independent bodies list among the reasons forcing Africans to risk their lives at sea economic aspirations, with young people seeking better opportunities to escape high unemployment rates in battered economies.
Among the reasons provided by those fleeing Africa is that many are driven by conflict, persecution, instability and civil wars.
The question then arises: why, in the 63 years since the formation of the OAU, now known as the AU, is Africa still grappling with such problems?
What has gone wrong in the six decades since the spirit of optimism and unity expressed by Nkrumah and his generation?
Going through the record of speeches delivered at the 1963 summit, one is buoyed by the enthusiasm and positive spirit of delegates. The desire to achieve economic and political independence, cooperate and build a united Africa is unmistakable.
Leaders were unanimous in calling for continental development and industrialisation, taking control of their countries’ raw materials, tapping into abundant water sources and building hydroelectric infrastructure to light up Africa.
They advocated improved intra-African trade and presenting a unified front when trading with Europe and other continents, opening the continent to improve trade and movement and achieving peace, stability and economic prosperity.
But today, the story of Africa betrays the enthusiastic optimism shown by its leaders at that historic gathering hosted by Emperor Haile Selassie more than half a century ago.
Indications are that although the desire to cooperate and unite remains, Africa is fragmented and retreating into old colonial constructs of individualism.
Regional bodies established to push the agenda of unity seem to have become blunt and impotent structures focused on securing the interests of individual member states.
As a result, intra-African trade and movement across the continent remain restricted and bogged down by red tape.
A World Bank report published in March 2026 revealed that “poverty rates remain stubbornly high in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
It went further, saying the region is “currently very far from eradicating extreme poverty”.
The January 2026 Global Economic Prospects report noted that severe food insecurity remained high across the region in 2025, affecting about one-quarter of the population — more than double the global average.
It further revealed that, in contrast to a declining global trend between 2021 and 2024, the number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa increased from about 250 million to nearly 280 million as food prices remained high.
This, the report said, partly reflected the effects of the region’s armed conflicts, as well as the aftermath of adverse weather events such as severe droughts in Southern Africa and floods elsewhere.
Efforts underway indicate some progress in achieving the goals of Agenda 2063. Recently, it was announced that the Trans-African Highway has reached more than 56 000km.
The Trans-African Highway is an ambitious project which, when completed, will link nine major corridors spanning nearly 60 000km from Cairo in the north to Cape Town in the south and from Djibouti in the east to Dakar in the west.
Hopefully, the continent’s leaders can push harder to achieve most of Agenda 2063’s goals and transform Africa into a global powerhouse.
It is an indictment of the current crop of leaders that so many people continue to leave their homes to escape poverty, underdevelopment and political instability — movement that creates further problems, as experienced in South Africa, where poor people are turning on one another and opportunistic formations exploit the situation.
The meaning of Africa Day should reflect the achievement of Agenda 2063’s aims to deliver inclusive and sustainable development to drive the pan-African dream of unity, self-determination, freedom and progress.
As Fulbert Youlou, the president of Congo-Brazzaville, told the 1963 OAU summit:
“African development depends on industrialisation. Only by producing the essential manufactured goods it needs can Africa ensure its development and reach a higher standard of living.”
If that were achieved, together with political stability, there would be far less reason for thousands to trek across their homes in desperation in search of a better life.
Lucas Ledwaba is editor and publisher of Mukurukuru Media and author of A Desire to Return to the Ruins — a look at the contentious issues of land reform and restitution in post-apartheid South Africa, Broken & Broken: The Shameful Legacy of Gold Mining in South Africa and We Are Going to Kill Each Other Today: The Marikana Story.
Africa Day is generally marked as a day for celebration, a day to rejoice at the steps taken by previous generations to fight against and eliminate the effects of colonialism, slavery, land dispossession and to chart a new course for a prosperous Africa.
