'Visa-Free Africa Will Dismantle Colonial Barriers Dividing Africa,' Campaigner Says

When colonial powers gathered in Berlin from November 15, 1884, to February 26, 1885, under Otto von Bismarck’s gaze, they carved Africa with foreign pens and divided its future. Today, Ras Mubarak—walking in the tradition of Pan-Africanists like Kwame Nkrumah, Modibo Keita, Sekou Toure, and the Casablanca Group nations—is taking that fight back to the road. With the Trans-African Tourism and Unity Campaign, he is leading a 40,000-kilometer journey across 39 countries to demand open borders not in 2063, as the African Union cautiously envisions, but within five years. More than a symbolic rebellion, the mission carries tangible promise: freer trade, booming tourism, millions of jobs for Africa’s restless youth, and the dismantling of colonial-era barriers that have long strangled the continent’s potential. This is not just a road trip; it is Africa redrawing its own map of destiny.

African Currents interviewed Ras Mubarak, former Ghanaian MP, media executive, and lead campaigner of the Trans-African Tourism and Unity Campaign, to discuss how he is pushing for visa-free travel across Africa by 2030—boosting trade, tourism, and opportunities for young people and businesses.

"The inspiration [to embark on his campaign to unite and bring about a borderless Africa] stems from the body of work, the legacy that Kwame Nkrumah, the pioneering Pan-Africanist, together with his colleagues like Modibo Keita, Salif Keita, King Mohamed of Morocco, and others, started in 1961 in Casablanca, of seeing an African continent where all of us can be united and travel freely and project the power of the African and be in control of our own resources [...]. And I believe there has to be some impetus in that dream. You know we need to spark that fire that was lit in 1961 in Casablanca. And then given the fact that Africa's population has ballooned. We're currently 1.4 billion people, given the fact that there are so much resources in Africa, yet our people live under development. It had become exceedingly important that we pushed our leaders to roll out policies that are in the best interest of our people," Mubarak expressed.

Want to hear more from our guest? Catch the full conversation on the African Currents podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.

You’ll find our episodes not just on the website, but also on Telegram.

► You can also stream our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Pocket Casts, Afripods, Podcast Addict.

► Check out all the episodes of African Currents.