South African opposition leader Julius Malema has advocated for a borderless Africa led by a single president, currency, parliament, and military, delivering a bold call to action at the Nigeria Bar Association’s Annual General Conference in Enugu on August 24, 2025, urging leaders to erase colonial boundaries and unite the continent.

Malema, president of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), pressed Africa’s 54 sovereign states to consolidate authority to counter external exploitation. “We demand one Africa, we demand a borderless Africa, we demand an Africa with one president, one currency, one military command, with one parliament,” he declared to thousands of attendees. He rejected the “dark continent” label, emphasizing Africa’s rich resources like diamonds and minerals as drivers of prosperity.

“Africans should not need visas to visit one another.” - Malema

Promoting visa-free travel, he urged Nigeria and South Africa to lead the African Continental Free Trade Area and industrialization, praising Nigeria’s support during South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle. Malema also condemned borrowing from institutions like the World Bank as “debt traps.”

He denounced xenophobia as a “betrayal of African unity,” linking attacks on Nigerians, Congolese, and Zimbabweans in South Africa to poverty and governance failures, and called for Africans to reclaim their resources through self-reliance.

Malema’s vision mirrors the Pan-African ambitions of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who, until his 2011 death, pushed for a United States of Africa with a single currency and government. Gaddafi’s plans faltered amid concerns over sovereignty and his authoritarian rule. Malema’s proposal now seeks to revive this unified vision, facing similar questions about feasibility in a diverse continent.