Colonial boundaries are being ruptured!

[Toyin Falola]

We may be not be noticing that our people, in millions, are not respecting the colonial boundaries. I am not talking about regionalism like the ECOWAS but the massive movements of people in some ways similar to the Bantu movements centuries ago.

What Zuma had to deal with was this great movement from other countries in Southern Africa to South Africa. People from Zimbabwe and Nigeria joined them. Some scholars and activists anticipated this in the 1950s in Lesotho, Malawi and others where their voices were drowned. I had once crossed from South Africa to two of these countries without immigration documents.

Today, it is clear that Nigeria is a hub with people coming from Niger, Mali, Chad, Sudan, etc.

Before ultra nationalists see our brothers and sisters as enemies, we must begin the pressure on governments to protect them. These movements are unstable.

In the Afro- Arab summit, a major initiative created by Egypt under Mubarak, we were told that 2 million people moved annually within the Horn and North Africa. As they were left unprotected, many began to cross the sea.

We cannot close our eyes to see people suffer.

Sent from my iPhone