'These borders we now worship were never ours'

Advocate Dali Mpofu, a senior figure in the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party led by former South African president Jacob Zuma, has decried growing divisions among Africans and called for continental development and the free movement of people.

Mpofu was speaking in Johannesburg at the launch of Footprints in the Chains: The Life Story of Job Sikhala, a new book by the veteran Zimbabwean opposition politician. The event also featured Zimbabwean journalist and commentator Hopewell Chin'ono, while Mozambican opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who was reportedly blocked from travelling by authorities in Maputo, addressed the gathering virtually.

In a fiery address, Mpofu criticised the widespread use of derogatory labels such as makwerekwere in South Africa to describe foreign nationals from other African countries.
"How can we have makwerekwere here in Africa?" he asked. "The very same people who 200 years ago were sitting together in KwaZulu-Natal are now calling each other that. We must wake up as Africans."

He highlighted the intertwined histories of southern African communities, citing the migration of King Mzilikazi and the shared languages and cultures across borders. "It is not a coincidence," Mpofu said. "Mzilikazi moved from KwaZulu-Natal, lived in Gauteng, and then crossed the Limpopo. These borders we now worship were never ours."

Mpofu lambasted the 1884 Berlin Conference, where European powers carved up Africa without African representation, describing it as the root of artificial borders that continue to divide the continent.

"Why is it that in the United States you have 51 states and can move around without borders, yet in Africa, we are trapped behind lines drawn in Germany?" he asked.

The veteran lawyer argued that the true cause of restrictive borders and xenophobia is economic underdevelopment. "People do not move because they hate their homes. They move because of economic factors. That happens everywhere. If Africa was developing as a continent, we would not even be having these discussions," he said.

Mpofu urged Africans to unite, rethink imposed colonial borders, and prioritise economic development that would allow citizens to move freely across the continent.