THIS MAN MUAMMAR GADDAFI!

In February 2009, upon being elected chairman of the 53-nation African Union in Ethiopia, Gaddafi told the assembled African leaders:

“I shall continue to insist that our sovereign countries work to achieve the United States of Africa.”

The BBC reported that Gaddafi had proposed “a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for Africans to move freely around the continent”. Other African leaders stated they would study the proposal’s implications, and re-discuss it in May 2009.

The focus for developing the United States of Africa far has been on building subdivisions of Africa – the proposed East African Federation can be seen as an example of this.

Former President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, had indicated that the United States of Africa could exist from as early as 2017. The African Union, by contrast, has set itself the task of building a “united and integrated” Africa by 2025.

Gaddafi had also indicated that the proposed federation may extend as far west as the Caribbean: Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and other islands featuring a large African diaspora, may be invited to join..

• 

MUAMMAR GADDAFI