Gaddafi Calls for One United African Government

TRIPOLI — Muammar Gaddafi has called for Africa to form a single federal government, arguing that fifty-plus national administrations have produced too many borders, too many currencies and nowhere near enough trains. The proposal was delivered to delegates seated behind placards arranged in the shape of the continent.

The plan includes a continental cabinet, elected parliament, unified defence council and passport printed in every official language that can fit around the photograph. A new central bank would issue a currency backed by minerals, sunlight and what the draft described as collective confidence.

“Africa must stop arriving at the world’s table as fifty separate invitations and sit down as the host.”

A capital without an address

Delegates immediately disagreed over where the federal capital should stand. Coastal states proposed a port, landlocked states proposed somewhere less coastal, and several governments suggested rotating the entire administration annually until the furniture surrendered.

Supporters pointed to shared bargaining power and open movement. Critics warned that a continental government could reproduce every existing bureaucracy at a larger scale. The organising committee responded by forming a subcommittee to study the danger of excessive committees.

The map after the speech

No treaty was signed, but the summit approved talks on rail links, student visas and joint purchasing of medicines. By nightfall the grand federation remained imaginary, while three modest agreements had become real enough to require signatures—the sort of incremental outcome that visionaries rarely mention from the podium.