ESSAY 8: POST COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE: THE EXTENT TO WHICH REGIONAL INTEGRATION UNDER THE CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA (AFCFTA) OFFERS AN EMPANCIPATORY ECONOMIC PATH FOR AFRICA, OR WHETHER IT RISKS DEEPENING GLOBAL INEQUALITIES

What is a postcolonial perspective in international trade and integration?

It critiques ongoing economic, political, and social patterns of inequality that stem from colonialism. It highlights how structures of power, dependency, and marginalization persist even after formal political independence.

What is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)?

A continental initiative by African countries to create a single market for goods and services, enhance intra-African trade, promote industrial development, and reduce dependence on external markets.

How did colonialism shape Africa’s economic structures?

It turned Africa into a supplier of raw materials, created infrastructure for export, and integrated its economies into global systems as extractive appendages to imperial powers.

What patterns from colonial economic relations still persist today?

Resource extraction for external benefit, limited industrialization, elite capture of wealth, dependence on foreign capital and technology, and external control over trade terms.

How does AfCFTA aim to support economic emancipation?

By fostering intra-African trade, industrialization, value addition, reducing tariff/non-tariff barriers, and empowering local enterprises including MSMEs(Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises), women, and youth.

What is the role of MSMEs in AfCFTA?

MSMEs form the backbone of African economies. AfCFTA seeks to integrate them into regional value chains, thereby promoting inclusive growth and reducing inequality.

Why is the Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade important?

It targets structural inequalities by addressing the unique challenges faced by marginalized groups in trade, especially in the informal and MSME sectors.

What is the significance of Africa’s demographic growth under AfCFTA?

Africa's projected 2.5 billion population by 2050 provides a large internal market and labor force, which could drive internal growth and global bargaining power.

What is the "new scramble for Africa"?

Renewed global competition (US, China, EU, India) for African resources and markets that mirrors colonial-era extractive dynamics and risks elite entrenchment and dependency.

How can the “new scramble” undermine AfCFTA’s goals?

Through enclave-led growth, lack of tech transfer, and reinforcement of authoritarian regimes, which can erode collective development and reinforce neocolonial patterns.

What are some internal challenges facing AfCFTA?

• Weak interstate cooperation

• Poor infrastructure

• Non-tariff barriers

• Corruption and conflict

How do non-tariff barriers affect AfCFTA’s success?

They increase trade costs and complexity, discourage intra-African trade, and reduce efficiency, especially when combined with poor transport and customs systems.

From a postcolonial perspective, what must Africa do to make AfCFTA emancipatory?

• Build unity among nations

• Strengthen institutional capacity

• Focus on inclusive development

• Avoid dependency models

How does AfCFTA challenge neoliberal trade models?

It incorporates developmental goals like sustainable development, right to regulate investments, and social equity—going beyond pure liberalization.

What is the danger if AfCFTA fails to overcome its challenges?

It could become a symbolic framework that reinforces Africa's peripheral status in global trade, deepens inequalities, and fails to deliver structural transformation.

Summarize the dual potential of AfCFTA.

It is either a transformative, emancipatory project for African self-determination and economic development—or a mechanism that, if mismanaged, entrenches global and internal inequalities.