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Christopher Farai Charamba Correspondent
Africa is the second largest continent on the planet, spanning some 30,3 million square kilometres, which translates to 20,4 percent of the earth’s total land area.

It has over 1,1 billion people, who speak over 2 000 languages living in 54 countries. For one to experience it all it would take a lifetime, perhaps even two.

Diversity is inherent on the continent as the Cape is different from Cairo and Dakar different from Dar es Salaam. Yet despite these differences, there are commonalities in society and aspects of culture. Not only that but social, political and economic issues afflicting one country in the West are similar, if not the same as another country in the South.

One recently made a maiden voyage to Malawi and was reminded of the fact that Africa still has a long way to go in terms of improving the socio-economic position of her people.

The first thing one notices when travelling around the continent is how expensive and or cumbersome it is to do. For a distance of 591,2km from Harare to Blantyre, one would have to pay upwards of $350 and stopover in Lusaka, Zambia before crossing over to Malawi if flying.

Travelling by bus is significantly cheaper; with $25 one can find themselves in Malawi’s second largest city, however, that journey is not without its own arduous encounters.

When travelling to Malawi it was relatively easy to cross the border on the way out. This is a positive as one does not want to be held up by immigration when travelling long distances where they intend to cross multiple borders.

What was striking and perhaps worrying was how porous the borders were. Between two border posts is an area commonly known as no man’s land. It usually is a 500m to 1000m stretch. The no man’s land between the Mozambique border post and the Malawi border post stretches for about four kilometres.

As the name suggests this is land that belongs to no one and logically should not be habited. The situation between these two countries is completely different. In that no man’s land, a township exists. Officially the land is said to belong to Malawi and it is just that the border post was placed a great distance away.

The problem with this set up is that it opens up numerous potential risks.

The first of which is that it can be difficult to clearly ascertain who and what is passing through the borders. Some of those who live within this no man’s land earn a living through trading at the border posts.

They are unlikely to have travel documents and manage to navigate the border posts on a basis of familiarity with the authorities stationed there.

This is an ideal setting for the smuggling of people, drugs and contraband.

In fact, there were barely any checks as to what people were travelling with at any of the border posts.

A question that comes up, is who is responsible for these people? Although they live on Malawian land, the area in which they live does not have public services such as a hospital or a police station. Everything they need they then have to cross officially into Malawi and attain those services.

The risk of this situation can be mitigated by Malawi moving its border post closer to that of Mozambique’s.

Another and better solution would be for the two countries to set up one-stop border post akin to the Chirundu Border Post between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Such initiatives are the types that African countries should be progressing to. A one stop border post is an efficient and likely to be more secure as the resources of both countries can be called upon to ensure that they protect their entry points.

Another somewhat peculiar thing noted when travelling from Malawi was that the immigration officer on the Mozambique side of the Mwanza Border Post spoke in Shona to some of the Zimbabwean travellers. So too did some of the hawkers in both Mozambique and Malawi. This shows that these countries are more integrated than some might think.

When one travels around the region, they realise that the arbitrary borders put up by the colonialists divided kith and kin in an attempt to create foreign identities for the indigenous people.

Divide and conquer tactics also put different indigenous groups together, who traditionally did not see eye to eye.

Despite this, a deep connection exists among African people within their regions regardless of which side of the border they reside.

Although different languages might be spoken, there are shared language expressions and phrases that the people will understand and give them the ability to communicate.

A 2004 UNDP Human Development Report noted that if cluster of up to 100 similar languages were counted in Africa, 12 are spoken by 75 percent of the population and 15 by 85 percent as a first or second language.

Another curious encounter was the way in which currency changes hands, particularly at the border posts.

One can buy a drink in rands at the Mozambique border and be given change in Malawi kwachas. Or one can buy an ornament in kwachas on the way out of Malawi and request for their change in US dollars should there be a need.

There is a thriving foreign currency market at the various border towns with people who understand exchange rates of multiple currencies.

There is, however, a risk as one could easily be changed counterfeit money and find themselves in a precarious situation.

What is key to take away from this scenario is that it seems to support the argument for the region to adopt its own single currency.

In fact, what is clear is that regional integration is not moving politically at the pace with which it is moving on the ground.

In a paper titled “Beyond the Geometry of State Sovereignty: Regionalism and Non-State Actors in the Southern African Development Community”, Dr Lesley Blaauw posits “that through economic and cultural trans-regional engagements, ordinary citizens are already constructing a southern Africa that lies beyond the geometry of state-sovereignty.”

This is quite evident in a short trip from Harare to Blantyre. The fact that there are no serious barriers in terms of language or culture, borders are relatively fluid, changing multiple currencies within the region takes place with ease, shows that there is already a sophisticated level of integration.

What needs to happen is for the policy and the legislation to catch up to the realities that people are living. Some of the instruments are already in place but it will take political will for them to be achieved.

The Regional Indicative Strategic Plan implementation framework had identified 2016 as the year in which SADC would set up a monetary union and 2018 as the year the region would be using a single currency. For that to happen, there were certain Integration Milestones the region was required to meet.

In 2008, there was supposed to be a Free Trade Area, in 2010 the region was supposed to set up a Customs Union and achieve a Common Market by 2015.

Most of these stages are incomplete because the political will is lacking and SADC itself does not have any authoritative or legislative powers to compel member states to comply.

If integration, which is already taking place, is to work on a macro-scale, which it needs to, then SADC member states must be willing to make some sacrifices and compromises for the good of the region.

Should this fail then the development of each African state will take longer than it possibly should.