The British vote to leave the European Union prompts thought about the implications for African integration initiatives. An early assessment suggests Brexit presents both challenges and opportunities.

Brexit brings economic opportunities for Africa in terms of a weakened European bloc, which has been a very powerful lobby for greater international trade liberalisation and the accompanying neoliberal development agendas. These agendas, upheld by both African leaders and the EU, have been scrutinised for impoverishing African states and people and for perpetuating human insecurity. Pressures for African countries to open up their economies have resulted in Africa having an extroverted outlook to international trade.

With most African countries trading with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the intra-African economic integration has suffered a blow. The European Community presents a powerful bloc within the World Trade Organization (WTO), which succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1995. African membership in these bodies was established on unequal terms with African countries pressured into accepting trade agreements that pushed a neoliberal development agenda on their populaces. Subsequently, this has resulted in a range of negotiations and disputes for changes to some of these agreements in light of the challenges facing developing countries.

The full implications of Brexit for Africa’s relationship with the EU are uncertain, but what is certain is that a significant blow has been dealt to Europe as well as to multilateral bodies such as the WTO. African countries can use this outcome to exert greater pressure within the WTO to bring transformation to its agreements in ways that allow for more introverted economic policies that allow increased intra-African trade and political-economic integration. A question we need to ask is, to what extent is this result a tool for the renegotiation of the WTO’s Most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle towards the development of unified protectionist policies, with free trade primarily occurring within the continent and Africa’s resource endowments benefiting Africans first and foremost?

This is an important question to consider, especially anticipating what other EU member states’ responses to the Brexit will be. If Britain has set an example for other member states to follow, then presumably we are witnessing the disintegration of the EU, which has been subject to ongoing criticism for pandering to big business and its strong neoliberal framework. We are, therefore, potentially witnessing the beginning of the end of neoliberalism as an ideology that enjoys free reign in international trade and changes to the WTO’s raison d’etre given the EU’s now weakened pull within the multilateral body. Given the requisite political will on the part of African leaders, Africa could potentially benefit from this.

This leads us to the main challenge that Brexit presents for Africa, one that stands in the way of adequately taking advantage of this development. To many people across the world, the EU is exemplary of successful continental integration efforts. The European Economic Community (EEC) became the European Union in 1993 to mark greater political integration and cooperation on a range of issues. The EU symbolises the willingness of member states to give up some of their sovereignty for the purposes of achieving unity amongst diverse peoples. Brexit, motivated by a concern with the loss of sovereignty and constraints in domestic policy-making wrought by EU membership, shows the reinvigoration of nationalism in Europe. What does this mean for Africa?

Pan-Africanism on the African continent has been nationalistic in character, with African leaders’ primary concern being the protection of individual state sovereignty to the detriment of greater continental unity. This is why the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963, was criticised. Though it sought to foster unity amongst African states, presumably like we see with the EU, it was seen as a mutual protection club for African leaders who used it to avoid accountability to their peoples. Pan-Africanism as nationalism, therefore, was meant to be challenged with the succession of the OAU by the African Union (AU) in 2002. However, the AU’s Constitutive Act, though calling for greater accountability, continues to safeguard nation-state sovereignty.

In light of Brexit, African leaders must avoid the trap of moving towards the strengthening of an African nationalist sentiment. What is needed is a strengthened commitment by African countries towards its union and an African political-economic integration. Brexit presents opportunities to hasten this union and African leaders must build on them with an eye to a continental federation.

Tinashe Jakwa is a Master of International Relations student at the University of Western Australia. Her article on Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Reform Programme was recently published in the Australasian Review of African Studies (ARAS). This article is published under a Creative Commons Licence and may be republished with attribution.