Africa Realigns for the SDGs with a Single ePassport

African Unity comes Full-Circle

The African Union has realigned itself as a single global power that we may want to call the United States of Africa. The African Union as of last week now consists of all of the African countries including Morocco which had left the union several years ago and now rejoined this year. The African Union (AU) has a universal flag, a parliament, a motto, an anthem and now, as of today, a single passport for its now 55 member states, making it the largest unified continental territory in the world.


The passport and the revitalized unification agenda is being developed to create a new sense of identity and autonomy for its 55 member nations. The AU Summit which has been going on since July 10th took the actions to create domestic continental trade, eliminate corruption, create equality, develop cooperation, protect Africa's resources and remove trade barriers between nations. The summit also targeted steps towards a single currency and banking system, currently there are 42 different types of currency in use.

President Barack Obama form the United States and President Xi Jinping of China both fully support the AU with economic programs. China's president went as far to contact the summit while in progress to offer 60 billion in 2016 and 2017 to promote cooperation and development programs. Obama traveled there in person to see what was going on in Africa and to support them in his effort to create an international trade partnership. (Read more - Washington Post)

A United and Strong Africa

Their motto expresses the common desires planted over 53 years ago when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) began its formation and walk towards their current agenda when it was reformed into the African Union (AU) in 2002.

The African continent is the most resource rich place on the earth, it accounts for just over 20% of the earth's land mass making it the second largest continent and is also the second most populous continent. A great majority of the resources are untapped, undiscovered and underutilized making it an excellent opportunity for global migration and sustainable resettlement of new residents and citizens.

Unlike European countries that are rejecting immigrants the AU welcomes new immigration and advancement of their civil societies so they are focusing on creating safety and security for would-be international settlers.

Much like the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur Union in South America the new agenda of the AU is focused on promoting wise use of sustainable resources, free-trade between African nations, and open migration within Africa. Moving from Zimbabwe to Angola will someday soon be as simple as moving from California to Texas in the USA.

Completely the opposite of Brexit the African Union creates a whole new dynamic in unity and puts all all the colonialist states and republic trading schemes which have abused the African nations resources as individual countries into a different perspective, because all the current international treaties with individual nations will be revised (many cancelled) to deal with the new continental super-nation Africa.

We can probably also expect to see military, commerce, non-profits, banks, education to all converge to single continental standard laws, customs, a single currency, and a great reduction in corruption at national levels.  

One Passport for Continental Commerce and Global Travel

The greatest immediate action that will be realized is that the African Union will begin almost immediately to issue e-passports and establish open continental trade and commerce. The new passports will be issued under a single authority of the AU. In their press release they said, "This flagship project, first agreed upon in 2014, falls squarely within the framework of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and has the specific aim of facilitating free movement of persons, goods and services around the continent - in order to foster intra-Africa trade, integration and socio-economic development."

The epassport being developed meets all the international standards and requirements defined by the ICAO and enforced by INTERPOL and members states of the United Nations at their ports. The passport that is being rolled out now for the AU citizens uses biometric identity fields, all passport holders will be able to travel, migrate and do business freely Africa wide. 

AU or United States of Africa

They will probably never call it the United States of Africa because the acronym USA is already taken, but nonetheless do not take the words 'united' and 'states' for granted; the official name of Mexico is the United States of Mexico (Estados Unidos Mejicanos)   The objectives of the AU are:

1. To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans.
2. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States.
3. To accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent.
4. To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples.
5. To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
6. To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent.
7. To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance.
8. To promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instruments.
9. To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations.
10. To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies.
11. To promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples.
12. To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union.
13. To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in particular in science and technology.
14. To work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and the promotion of good health on the continent.