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One flag, one country one continent anything but that is robbery and a conspiracy against the people of the land. In Africa today every single tribe with the exception of those found in Ethiopia were not opportune to decide the fate of their nationality. The colonialist, who in marking their territories from other conflicting European interest further exasperated the cultures and languages of the natives by imposing theirs, committed this atrocity. To go into the details of the horrors of colonialism, would serve no better purpose than opening up old wounds that still hurts when there are new ones growing in its place. Today, while every African country remains free, their people are faced with an even more vicious enemy, Globalization. The idea behind globalization is a good one but when looked in comparative to how the world is setup up today, only three continents would benefit from it, North America, Europe and Australia. This is squarely because of how the economies in these continents are setup. There is a huge trade deficit in every African country including South Africa and economically more than half the amount of countries in Africa has nothing to offer the international community. Most African countries are forced to come to the trading block with just one commodity for lack of other exportable resources within their location and in all cases these commodities are at its rawest form because of lack of industrialization in African countries. Therefore because these countries lack diversity in trade or control of any aspect of the market they basically do not have a say in determining the prices of their goods. So its not surprising to find that most of African goods are purchased at give-away prices dictated by their western counterparts only to be processed and resold back to Africans at exotic prices. This tactic has worked well for the western world, and for it to remain that way there is a need to stop or slow down African countries from becoming industrialized nations. To attempt such a conspiracy would naturally be assumed to be grand or simply impossible, however in this article I would point out some hypothetical analysis that help to make this less than far fetched as it appears. In Africa today, despite the existence of OAU many countries neither have nor practice a form of trade with their neighboring African countries. Whereas those who do still find their goods traded via an European exchange block because the line of communication between African nations has been further complicated by the interest of their European colonials in relation to their African counterparts. No where is this more prevalent than the relationship between Nigeria and Cameroon or Ghana and Ivory Coast who share different colonial masters that transferred their mutual animosity between each other to their colonies. It is important to note that before the era of colonization a series of empires spurred up in different regions of Africa, controlling both vast areas of land and human resources. This wasn't a new phenomenon. It had always been that way, but the point in stating this is that, all of these empires were dependent upon a form of trade or the other with neighboring kingdoms and clans to survive economically. Otherwise they risked annihilation by neighboring warring empires if not internal decapitation by disgruntled unsatisfied forces. The same forces that compelled pre-colonial empires to trade and generate wealth are still prevalent and remain so for all societies in the world, the only difference in Africa today is that we live in a generation that faces the risk every day rather than avoid it. Every African country is currently facing some form of internal decapitation while a few others are at war with each other. This internal conflict slows down the industrialization process in most countries if not abruptly ends it, and therefore works in the interest of the western world. So it comes as no surprise that while today's crop of African leaders are apt to basket in international recognition and praise from abroad, they earn such applause at the expense of their own people. It's a known fact that the western world lent it's support and continues to do so to some of Africa's most notorious dictators and in many instances helped them achieve their post. Such external manipulation or credence to an unpopular individual during an internal jostle for authority in the homelands end up creating a form of discontent that work against the majority of the human resources these countries need to advance economically. The fact of the matter is there can be no industrialization without nation building first. From the tip of Egypt to the bottom of South Africa the trend is real and dangerous. African countries insist that they need aids and the abolishment of debt by the West to survive but the truth is that both options if carried out would still be a temporary relief and would not prevent the eventual collapse of African nations. For Africans there are only two options, one is to break down the current boundaries and different nationalities and form a united African state with one law and one currency or to risk annihilation through both internal and external forces. My fear is that the West may not want the second option and would prevent it by putting the remaining Africans that haven't died off from starvation, war or disease in a special zoo like pandas as specimen of a black race that once walked the earth. After all it is in their nature to be "morally generous". The lack of clear-cut borders that existed in pre-colonial periods in Africa made it easy for nomads and traders to pick up and move. This relocation helped the general society because it also gave individuals opportunity to trade crops that were scarce in other parts of Africa while purchasing other resources those individuals needed in their homelands. Today such a thing can only be done without hindrance by government agencies of which they rarely participate in, and when they do, they make a point of boasting to the local media of how much they are into "African solidarity". These governments are perhaps not aware that it is not just a solidarity thing but a mutual necessity of which their interest should be forefront at. As things currently are it is almost impossible for local investors to venture out of their regional areas to do business without an incredulous amount of check points and immigration stops to bare with, coupled with the centuries old ambushes that awaits one on his route. Regional bodies don't even consider co-operative road buildings, common immigration departments and police force. Nobody can make a profit or break even in such an atmosphere and the situations are not any better within the regions in any of the five regional trade organizations that make up Africa. I was deeply pleased by the last OAU meeting but what is central most to its success would be the centralization of an authoritative figure and government to govern the continent. This is important because regardless of how we start or unite we would all be uniting as developing countries with very poor backgrounds and this means that the strife and internal conflicts within each African nation would persist. However if you trace the root of most African nations internal conflict, besides from starvation and a little cake to go around, the trouble usually starts because one or two tribes dominate and suffocate the others. A centralized government for the continent with a big congress easily solves this because then no tribe can boast of a majority and every tribe would be forced to align with other tribes to chase its goals. This would also make it difficult for external influences to dictate a chain of events in the new country because the centralized authority would naturally be forced to answer to the numerous demands of each region or tribe or risk not being re-elected. The sheer size of the continent alone would prevent rigging in federal elections even if it were not the case in local ones. Today's countries should be made states, however it should be done with the concurrence of tribes that were split into two different countries by their colonial masters in deciding which state they wish to belong via a referendum. This would create an immediate boom for the new continent because with one passport for every African under one law the choice of where one may decide to live becomes wide open. Such a thing would naturally, cause mass relocation from one end of the continent to another, thereby moving people, business and wealth. It may cause a class movement too, where the rich move to a location and the poor to another but generally the mass movement in itself would be enough to generate wealth for the new country. Businesses would now easily capitalize on cheap labor and the standardized legal system across the continent would help in boosting local investment across the continent. At that time Africa would then decide whether to pay African debt or simply throw the papers away since the countries neither exist anymore nor where the debts a result of fair business practices by the West. Only then should Africans fully support globalization. Before the advent of colonization it was widely believed in the west that all black people where the same. This belief stemmed from the fact that the early Portuguese and missionaries upon encountering a few kingdoms realized that although Africans had a multiplicity of languages they lived in uniformed kingdoms, unlike in Europe where nationality was and is closely attached to the lingual aspects of a location. Also since these pre-colonial empires participated in inter-tribal trade across the kingdom its no surprise that with the vast resources at their disposal there was not a need for intercontinental trade. Although the Arabs did come to Africa to do business, Africans were not necessarily inclined to go there to do business. Hence the assumption by the Europeans of Africans as being the same. The west on the other hand have been forced by environment to do business outside their continent to survive, whether it be in china, middle-east or in the last three hundred years Africa. The fear in the west having found Africa, which is closer than far east Asia, is that Africa may shut themselves out like before and survive even better and to their detriment. Thus the need for the west to keep a tight leash on their previous colonies and participate in the scheme of things that decide the rule of the stooges they created before leaving. Like I said earlier I cannot prove it, it is only a hypothesis but I'm sure if you follow the logic you would agree with me that there had to be a conspiracy somewhere. Now is the time for Africa, it is time for one people under one flag. I look at my country Nigeria and I see no hope neither do I see any in other African country. The truth is I have nothing to be proud about, and certainly not Nigeria except being an African.