In 2026, the path to a strong Africa runs through the recognition of its sovereign, self-determined nations. Only then can we build a union that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.
By Timothy Enongene, Guest Editor-in-Chief, The Independentistnews
For decades, the African Union has preached a gospel of “continental unity” while ignoring the structural contradictions that make such unity impossible. A persistent myth promoted by the political elite in Addis Ababa is that the emergence of new sovereign states—such as a restored Federal Republic of Ambazonia—poses a threat to the Pan-African project. We are told it would “fragment” the continent.
Yet the lived evidence points in the opposite direction. The most successful model of continental integration in the modern world—the European Union—demonstrates that unity is not built through forced incorporation or territorial coercion. It is built through voluntary cooperation among free and sovereign states. Sovereignty is not the enemy of unity. It is the foundation that makes unity possible.
The EU Lesson: Voluntary Association, Not Forced Marriage
The European Union functions because it is a union of independent states that chose integration. France does not occupy Germany. Poland does not claim Lithuania as inherited territory. Every nation sits at the table as a sovereign equal, not as a conquered subject.
Africa, by contrast, has inherited a model of “forced marriage.” Colonial borders are treated as sacred, even when they function as instruments of domination and exclusion. When La République du Cameroun invokes “territorial integrity” to justify the occupation of Ambazonia, it is not preserving unity—it is preserving colonial logic.
Unity cannot be built on coercion. A household cannot be peaceful if one member holds another hostage. Stability cannot emerge where identity is suppressed by force.
Ambazonia: A Foundation, Not a Threat
An independent and sovereign Ambazonia is not a threat to “One Africa.” It is a building block for it. A restored Ambazonia would be a democratic, stable, and productive partner in regional trade, security, and development. A free people bring their full capacity to cooperation. An occupied people are forced to divert their energy into resistance and survival.
By resolving the Ambazonian question through a third-party mediated settlement, the African Union would not weaken Africa—it would strengthen it. It would shift the continent from a “union of occupiers and the occupied” to a “union of the free.”
Beyond Colonial Borders: Choosing Our Future
The African Union must stop treating the borders imposed in 1884 as sacred scripture. Those lines were drawn to divide, not to unify. True Pan-Africanism does not mean obeying colonial maps—it means empowering African peoples to determine their political futures.
If Africa seeks to emulate the success of the EU, it must embrace a model where unity is a choice made by free nations, not a sentence inherited from history.
We envision a continent where an independent Ambazonia, an independent Nigeria, and an independent South Africa cooperate freely—trading, integrating markets, sharing currencies, and protecting one another’s rights—not because they are forced to, but because they choose to.
Conclusion: Sovereignty Is the First Step
You cannot integrate what you do not respect. The AU’s repeated failures to intervene in atrocities such as Ngarbuh, Egbekaw, and Gidado reflect a dangerous hierarchy of values—where the abstract idea of the “state” is treated as more important than the lives of the people.
As Ambazonians, we remain committed to the vision of “One Africa.” But we reject a false unity that requires our erasure as its price. Our sovereignty is not a threat to Africa’s future.
It is a prerequisite for it.
We seek an African association where sovereignty provides security and unity creates prosperity—where free nations integrate by choice, not by coercion. The Ambazonian Blueprint is simple: Let us be free, so that we may truly be united.
In 2026, the path to a strong Africa runs through the recognition of its sovereign, self-determined nations. Only then can we build a union that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Timothy Enongene, Guest Editor-in-Chief, The Independentistnews
