By: Moses Desire Kouyo-Lead, Africa Agenda
When the African Union unveiled the African Passport in Kigali in 2016, the hall erupted with applause. It was presented as the key to a new dawn: an Africa where Africans could move freely across the continent, no longer prisoners of colonial lines carved in Berlin in 1884. Leaders waved the sleek document for the cameras, declaring it a symbol of unity and integration.
Nearly a decade later, that promise has turned into one of the greatest scams of modern Pan-Africanism. Because here is the bitter truth: the African Passport exists, but not for Africans.
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A Passport for Presidents, Not People
The AU has issued the African Passport to a tiny circle—heads of state, top AU officials, and diplomats. The very people who already enjoy special travel privileges are the only ones allowed to hold the so-called passport of unity. For the average African—students, traders, workers, the dream remains locked away in speeches and summit declarations.
Take Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man. He has complained openly that he needs 35 visas to travel across the continent for business. If the wealthiest African, with all his influence, is chained by visas, what hope is there for the student from Accra applying to study in Nairobi, or the farmer in Uganda trying to sell produce in Tanzania?
Meanwhile, ordinary Africans face humiliation. Embassies demand bank statements, police reports, employment letters, and sometimes arbitrary deposits, proof that the applicant will not “overstay” in another African country. Many are denied without explanation. Those lucky enough to secure visas often endure hours at chaotic borders, forced to pay bribes to hostile customs officers.
Visa Inequality in a Supposedly United Africa
The African Development Bank and AU’s 2024 Visa Openness Report paints a grim picture:
- Only 4 countries—Benin, Gambia, Rwanda, and Seychelles—offer visa-free travel to all Africans. Four out of fifty-five. That is Africa’s record after decades of Pan-African speeches.
- Most African nations still treat fellow Africans as foreigners, erecting tougher barriers than Europe does for its own citizens.
- As of early 2025, only 4 countries had ratified the AU Free Movement Protocol, far short of the 15 required for it to come into force.
This is not integration. It is hypocrisy dressed in Pan-African colours.
The Price of Closed Borders
The cost of Africa’s visa hypocrisy is staggering.
- Intra-African trade remains at 15–17 percent of total African trade—shamefully low compared to 68 percent in Europe and 58 percent in Asia.
- The World Bank estimates that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could generate $450 billion in income gains by 2035 and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty. But without free movement, these projections are fantasies.
- African youth—the 400 million under 35 who make up our largest demographic group—are being forced to look outside the continent for opportunities. It is easier for a Ghanaian to secure entry to the UK than to some African countries.
What message does this send? That Africa is for elites, not for Africans.
A Propaganda Document, Not a Passport
Let us be clear: the African Passport is a propaganda booklet, not a passport of liberation. It was designed for press releases and photo ops, not for the people it was supposed to serve. If it truly mattered, every African would already have access to it.
And yet, every AU summit recycles the same hollow declarations: integration, free movement, Pan-African unity. Leaders invoke Nkrumah’s name, but betray his vision. Nkrumah declared in 1963, “Africa must unite now.” Not tomorrow. Not in 2063. Now.
The Hypocrisy Must End
A Pan-African passport that excludes Africans is worse than no passport at all. It mocks the ideals of unity and insults the struggles of millions who fight every day against the barriers that keep us divided.
If the African Union is serious, here is what must happen immediately:
- Open the African Passport to all citizens, not just politicians.
- Fast-track ratification of the Free Movement Protocol—at least 15 countries must step up this year.
- Dismantle visa barriers, beginning with regional corridors like ECOWAS, EAC, and SADC, where integration should already be reality.
- Invest in infrastructure—roads, railways, airports, and digital corridors—to make free movement possible in practice, not just theory.
The Urgency of Now
The longer we wait, the more Africa loses. We lose trade. We lose talent. We lose dignity. We lose the chance to prove that Pan-Africanism is more than a slogan.
It is a scandal that in 2025, an African is treated as a stranger in Africa. It is a scandal that leaders preach unity while hoarding the passport of unity for themselves. And it is a scandal that the AU dares to push the dream of a borderless Africa to 2063, when the need is urgent now.
Africa does not need propaganda. Africa needs courage. Africa needs leaders who are willing to do what they ask of the people.
The African Passport must either become real, accessible, and functional or it must be buried, so we stop deceiving ourselves.
Until then, let us call it by its true name: a passport for presidents, not for people.
