What are the prospects of having a United States of Africa?

I conducted a mini poll on Yahoo answers.com, through a simple questions, “What are the prospects of having a United States of Africa? The responses I got were kind of shocking to me. 99% of all the respondents suggested that this was not the right time to have a united states of Africa (trash the idea) while the rest 10% were positive.

The results speak volume about the kind of groundwork our leaders ought to have done before moving to the next phase of hutching the United States of Africa. Word on the ground is that before mooting the idea, African leaders did not properly consult the citizens of their various countries. Below I have summarized various reactions to the question:

JUEGRGEN said...I think it's a great idea. As a young European I see what benefits the European Union brings, foremost peace. I sincerely believe in cooperation and dialogue and a 'Union' can be an invaluable platform for so. Nonetheless, the Europeans (speaking as a group here, despite the differences between Germans, English and so on) came a long way and had learn their hard lessons from two world wars etc... Therefore, I am not sure how realistic an US of Africa is but believe in it's inspirational value.

STUNG4EVER said...Until they can have at least half their countries not fighting a civil war every 20 years, not a chance.
CMDRBND007 said...It seems pretty slim to me. They have been fighting each other for centuries over there. I think they really, I mean really hate each other.

JOSEPH II said...Not good. The Continent is just too politically & demographically fragmented to maintain a genuinely "united" structure. Maybe someday... :)

SURLYGURL said...I don't think it is at all possible in the near future. A huge difference between Africa and the origin of the US America is that the founders were all from the same country and based a political system on something they were all familiar with. Resolving the differences between political and ethnic factions within each individual African country is in itself such a difficult task that bringing each country into a working federation is nearly inconceivable at this stage.

ZES2 Z said... A couple of centuries....maybe, but by then everyone in world will be scrounging and preyed upon by Warlords and DICTATORS....oh yeah....and BIG BUSINESS

MARK A said... I sincerely doubt something like that could ever work. Way too many differing factions at work. Some of the nations don't even like their own people, much less one country over! Unfortunately, I can see Islam trying to be the unifying force, kinda like the Borg from ST, TNG. "resistance is futile". Hey they want Islam to take over the world, it's not a bad place to start.

FRAGINAL-NOYPI said... Ethnic differences will be a hindrance to a United States of Africa.

KISHOR LAL said... VERY bright

SEANO said... Only if there is a dictator strong enough to conquer the whole continent. They would never willingly join such a union, the continent is a collection of dictators, kings and chiefs who have carved out their own little fiefdoms and fight and oppress all those who oppose them. Not exactly the founding father types.
JOHN T said...The chances are pretty remote.
The governments of Africa are some of the most corrupt in the world. None would want to give up *any* of their power.
The tribes in those countries hold great animosity towards each other. It's hard to keep a country together, much less a unity of nations.

JOHN KUNTZ said...Until they can stop being so tribal and unite under a truly organized and civilized government. So yeah it won't happen
I was particularly impressed at the speed, in which responses to this question were trickling in, of note was one answer from someone calling known as “WILD-MAN of BORNEO” that left me wondering:
“Without our creator the shepherd in ruling and leading in guiding them (Africans)? But with the dead Mummy with two hands stretching out creaking and rattling with skeleton of skull and bones blindly searching the way back to the graveyards in bringing them along too risen from the graveyards of failures and horrors of the past ancestor's custom. What do you think?”

By the time I published this post, more answers were still coming in, you can follow up by checking out the link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqlxZP1HpPLPeIrWALHLPjojzKIX?qid=20070711230300AAC6lNt