The fight for the sovereignty of the African continent has been on the cards for centuries. Africans embarked on the wars of resistance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the view to rid themselves of colonial oppression and to be the architects of their own future. With the end of colonialism, this hope received new impetus. Unfortunately, neo-colonialism tendencies continued to hold Africans hostage until the birth of the African Union (AU) revived the hope that Africans would eventually succeed in deciding their destiny without Europeans. It was within this context that the notion of ‘African solutions to African problems’ became a policy objective. But, to what extent has this goal been achieved? This is the main question addressed in this paper. Succinctly, this paper discusses Africa’s successes and challenges in achieving this goal and proffers solution to the way forward.

Using Diop’s theory of Cultural Identity, this paper discusses the African Union’s (AU) Common Position on Migration and Development and the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment. The paper argues that, although these policies try to achieve the vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, they ignore fundamental issues such as creating a common African identity and an African consciousness. Unless an African consciousness or an African state of mind is cultivated, these policies are not likely to succeed. The paper proposes that the education systems of African states must consciously inculcate Pan-African values and teach an Afrocentric history in order to create a common African historical consciousness and argues that the AU must use indigenous African languages as official languages in order to show that it is serious about promoting Pan-African values.

Legislations prohibiting homosexuality (male-male relationships especially) are gaining increasing attention in Africa, especially within the global human rights discourse. Uganda and Nigeria lead the pack in the expression of the homophobia sweeping through Africa and both have passed homosexual criminalization legislations. These national laws prohibit the promotion of homosexual affairs by the countries’ citizens. Informed by the law, this paper discusses the anti-homosexual laws in Uganda and Nigeria and examines the domestic and international politics of anti-homosexual legislation in the two countries. The study found that anti-homosexual legislations in the focus countries were informed by the dynamics of national politics, negative societal attitude to the expression of homosexual activities, and increasing religious conservatism.

Following the full-blown attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa in 2008, which had been isolated before then, xenophobia as a concept has reclaimed its place in the African and international discourse. As commentators turned their attention to South Africa following these attacks, the ‘Ghana Must Go’ debacle – mass deportation of Ghanaians from Nigeria which was carried out by the Nigerian government- was rehashed. Instead of recounting xenophobic events, this article will focus on problematizing the concept and juxtaposing it with terms such as ‘Afrophobia’ and ‘Negrophobia’. We argue that the term ‘xenophobia’ has been used so loosely that it has lost its actual meaning. We provide a critical analysis of the events that have taken place in South Africa and locate them within the broader analytical context. We then conclude with a warning on the negative repercussions of a casual use of the term “xenophobia” which might obscure meaning.

Globally, the tide of migration has distorted the socio-economic and political landscape of nation- states. In Africa, rising migration has been expressed through diverse modes of xenophobia. Literature abound on xenophobia in Africa and its manifestations; however sparse studies have linked xenophobia with regional integration in Africa, vis-à-vis- the response of the African Union (AU) to extreme nationalism and anti-immigration acts. While the AU and member-states have invested significantly in security, Africa is far from secure. Aside from the conventional conflict that confronts post-colonial Africa, resurgence of xenophobia continues to threaten regional security and impede the actualization of the much-coveted United States of Africa. Through desktop research and case-studies, the article engages on xenophobia, evaluates its reality in Africa and explores the place of African Union in curtailing xenophobia. The article acknowledges AU’s efforts to confront xenophobia through the enactment of pro-migration regional policy frameworks; however, xenophobia persists due to the complex nature of the regional body and complicity of the drivers of African regionalism

The beginning of the 21st century saw the emergence of new global threats to transnational security in West Africa as a result of the spread of jihadist terrorism across borders. Extremist Islamic movements are prevalent in Northern Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Mali, and Chad, carrying out cross-border attacks assisted by open and porous borders and movement of illegal immigrants. This paper examines the effect of radical Islam on transnational security through a review of existing literature and the social and security consequences on the people of the affected regions. Our findings indicate that the activities of armed Islamic movements are having a negative impact on the economy and security of the states and people of West Africa. It stresses the importance of transnational cooperation as these threats to transnational security can no longer be solved in a national or regional framework.

The complexity of most African conflicts has been mainly due to the covert and overt involvement of actors and their interests. These interests include the quest for exploiting strategic mineral resources and the setting up of strategic military bases among others. International and regional state and non-state institutions have tried to devise mechanisms that create conditions for peaceful resolution of conflicts in Africa such as operational synergies. The introduction of hybrid peace support operations brought with it some expectations from relevant stakeholders in respect of joint planning, integrated and a clear division of labour between international and regional organisations. However, delicate challenges of political, economic and strategic nature continue to be encountered. These challenges include inter- institutional competition, conflict, mistrust and relative tension, among others. This paper examines and analyses the challenges being facing by the United Nations-African Union (UN-AU) hybrid peace support operations in Darfur. It will be argued that the African Union – United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, referred to by its acronym, UNAMID, continuous challenges, revolve around political and strategic dynamics such as less cooperation and non-commitment by the five permanent members (P5) of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), less cooperation and non-commitment by host government and lack of funding from relevant stakeholders, thereby affecting attainment of the mission objectives. The authors used data collected through discussions with relevant scholars and interviews with policy practitioners who are conversant with peace support operations. The paper was supported by secondary sources such as books, unclassified policy documents on UN and AU peace support operations.

Africa appears to have improved women’s representation in political processes in the continent in the wake of feminization of public decision-making in the 1990s. However, women’s representation in formal peacebuilding structures and processes remains low essentially because most of them are more involved in informal peacebuilding activities in their various communities which often do not get recognized. Although continental governance bodies such as the African Union (AU) have made some policy efforts to address this, the disconnect between formal and informal peacebuilding work remains both in policy and practice. This paper explores women’s informal peacebuilding activities in Africa using the specific example of Sierra Leone. It concludes by suggesting how women’s informal peace activities can be mainstreamed into formal peacebuilding processes within the continent by the African Union

This article explores the fundamental contemporary factors in conflict transformation perspectives to peacebuilding. It harnesses the essential functions that pull together mechanisms that may be useful in empowering local institutional capacity in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding in Africa. Through analysing secondary data on discourse analytical studies, on conflict and peacebuilding in Africa, the paper explores legitimacy, inclusivity and coherent peace practices, as measures for bestowing value in local or community stakeholders, to ensure sustainable peacebuilding processes. The paper adopts an integrative peacebuilding approach, which recognises hybrid peace initiatives as essential to addressing contemporary peace challenges in local communities. Examples from multiple peace processes across Africa are drawn to expose the limitations of the hegemonic peace practices that exclude the local, particularly women and the youth in peacebuilding practices, thereby affecting the sustainability of peace.

The African Union (AU), a supranational body is charged with promoting continental cooperation and the socio-economic development of member states. One of the continental body’s foremost aspirations, as encapsulated in its Agenda 2063 dossier, is to build a prosperous Africa. While the AU, as a supranational body may have the license to dictate and suggest the developmental trajectory of members states; the issue with such is that the levels of development amongst member states vary. Indeed, there is no procrustean solution that can be suggested for the development of an entire continent. This study however avers that paradiplomacy has the potential to promote continental development and aid the AU in achieving its 2063 agenda. Arguably, paradiplomacy has immense developmental potential. There is however little evidence to affirm that the practice of paradiplomacy by sub-state entities in most African countries have been taking place in a cohesive manner. Given this, this study outlines and analyses the legal framework under which subnational governments in South Africa conduct international relations. The analyses include the legal scope and boundaries of the international agendas of provinces in the country. While there is scant literature on the nature of the paradiplomatic activities of subnational governments in Africa, the study provides a brief description of the engagements of some of South Africa’s provinces in paradiplomacy The study focuses on the Western Cape Province’s paradiplomatic activities, to establish an example, how the constitution comes to play with regards to paradiplomacy in South Africa and to further emphasise the developmental dimension of paradiplomacy in the country and how the AU can adopt such framework in promoting continental development. The findings of the study establish that Western Cape’s paradiplomatic strategy, is one of the first well-articulated and integrated approaches that captures the international engagements of subnational governments in South Africa

While youth unemployment in Zimbabwe is given pre-eminence in several discussion fora, there is evidence that it is increasing instead of receding, with some statistics indicating that it is hovering around 65%. This paper addresses critical aspects of the drivers of unemployment in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular. These include but are not limited to curriculum mismatch with industry requirements, low levels of economic expansion, and obsolete technology. The paper proceeds to point out that innovation can be used as a strategy to enhance job creation that meets the unemployment challenge. From a policy perspective, the government lacks the political will and means to initiate projects and technology that may reduce unemployment. This lack of creativity also means that the youth continue to operate sub-optimum projects. With an economy that is agro-based and highly dependent on the export of primary products, it is argued that value addition and beneficiation of products may transform the unemployment trends through innovation. The main research question asked is to what extent can innovation and structural change be adopted in an economy that is facing unemployment challenges? Using a qualitative methodology, the study reveals how innovation-inspired changes can create employment opportunities for the youth in agriculture and artisanal mining. The adoption of economic theories of entrepreneurship helps to unpack the experiences of the youth whose determination to improve their socio-economic status has seen them moving towards innovation in their agricultural and artisanal mining enterprises. The relevancy of these theories is also put under spotlight in examining the Zimbabwean context.

International migration is growing steadily and has become an inevitable phenomenon on the African continent, Europe, and North America because of economic, social and political challenges. Post-apartheid South Africa, the second largest economy in Africa, instituted a liberal policy which was an opening for thousands of migrants who were in search of protection and better opportunities to come to South Africa. This paper examines the push and pull factors of international migration in South Africa, using Cameroonian and Congolese migrants. Using a qualitative-based approach, we selected key informants for semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Our findings suggest that three factors are mainly responsible for international migration. First on the list are economic factors, followed by political factors, and then the influence of migrant networks. In addition to other conventional factors highlighted in literature, two new factors were discovered during the course of the research: aspirations and exposure. As a strong economic bloc, it has become imperative that the South African government address the different challenges that migrants face for better integration, social cohesion, and economic prosperity in the spirit of Ubuntu.