Title is absurdly overhyped. As noted, this is currently limited to diplomats and heads of state (!). Talk is cheap in the AU, and even in the unlikely event that they do manage to "create the conditions for member states to issue the passport to their citizens", it's likely to end up a boondoggle like the APEC Business Travel Card:<p><a href="https://www.border.gov.au/Busi/Trav/APEC" rel="nofollow">https://www.border.gov.au/Busi/Trav/APEC</a><p>Which also grants visa-free travel to APEC economies, but only if you can fulfill a huge list of mostly arbitrary conditions that de facto make it impossible to apply for unless you're sitting in the C-suite of a listed company, have someone to do the paperwork for you <i>and</i> travel a lot.
Hmm.<p>"Although, the passport is <i>currently exclusive to government heads and diplomats</i>, it is here to stay, even though it will take a while before it circulates among non-dignitaries."<p>So well see if it ever goes beyond diplomats.<p>---<p>Since the western media almost never reports anything on Africa, does anybody know how the AU is progressing?<p>Are they pushing for a EU like model? What are it's goals and principles, and are they actually making progress? (Links welcome)
The author clearly has no idea of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma's history. She's a potentially powerful figure in South Africa's ruling ANC who is in a cushy job that is really political exile.<p>As such, she's free to talk up ideas that sound great in The Economist (conservative macro-economics, zealous climate change action, consumer protection, gay rights, health laws) but never have to convince a single member of the electorate about their merits. Issues are somewhere between "don't care" and "when hell freezes over" in the electorate's mind.<p>This particular issue is on the extreme end of frozen hell. Poor South Africans perceive foreigners as criminals and/or a direct threat to their livelihoods, and the tension regularly boils over into violence. There's plenty of room for nuance: the violence is extreme but it is a fact that we have an appalling history of (and in some cases ongoing) exploitation, including hiring seasonal foreign workers (illegally) for lower wages than locals.<p>Regardless, nothing like the EU freedom of movement is ever going to happen.<p>Republicans in the US are more likely to support Obama immigration reforms for Mexicans than South Africans would vote for millions of Congolese, Zimbabweans, Nigerians, Malawians, Sudanese migrants/refugees to be allowed to hold jobs here.
Well it's not borderless, its just you don't need a visa for a fair number of days (1 week to 6 months) and it will not accompany the right to work or study.<p>Currently very few African countries offer visa on arrival or electronic visas for other African countries' citizens.<p>While it's not the same as the EU's version of a borderless union, it's a great step forward.
From the AU Summit in Kigali, Rwanda:<p>"One of the primary goals of the agenda is to guarantee integration and political unity in Africa and this passport will aid the body achieve that goal."<p>Yet Paul Kagame has been President of Rwanda now for 16 years!!!<p>Oh and this borderless AU is only available to the "ruling class." So African politics as usual. Nobody believes this nonsense. This is pure spin.<p>If they really wanted to address jobs they would need to address the fact that their countries are increasingly selling their natural resources and labor to the Chinese. I was shocked when I saw Chinese laborers in coolies building roads in Ethiopia and a foreman barking at them in Mandarin. This is not an uncommon site in Kenya and the DRC either.
The BBC coverage is much better on this (including a FAQ on common questions):<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36823644" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36823644</a>
Slightly OT, but The article alludes to xenophobic violence in South Africa. South Africa already has a <i>de facto</i> open borders policy and its local black population has been squeezed out of many business opportunities by people from the rest of Africa, as well as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and China, and there are spasmodic eruptions of anti-foreigner violence. The similarities with Brexit and Trump are striking, and show something more complex is going on, than simple bigotry.
"The greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects; In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogeneous settings."
<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/" rel="nofollow">http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/t...</a>
The AU passport is part of Agenda 2063 which establishes many other ambitious goals: <a href="http://agenda2063.au.int/en/sites/default/files/agenda2063_popular_version_05092014_EN.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://agenda2063.au.int/en/sites/default/files/agenda2063_p...</a><p>So I want to create a reminded for Jan 1st, 2063 in my Google Calendar to "check if Africa has reached these goals". Unfortunately Calendar won't let me save events past year 2050 :-(
A good article talking about the current issues traveling between African countries:
<a href="http://qz.com/641025/the-trials-restrictions-and-costs-of-traveling-in-africa-if-youre-an-african/" rel="nofollow">http://qz.com/641025/the-trials-restrictions-and-costs-of-tr...</a>
According to the bulk of the response I saw on African Twitter when this was announced, the simpler (and much cheaper) thing to do would be to remove visa restrictions for anyone with an African passport.