Navigating a Tight Rope Between African Philosophy and Economics: Will the African Union Sustain the Spirit of Ujamaa in the Advent of COVID-19?

Ujamaa is a highly popularised African spirit and philosophy of socialism and family or brotherhood. This chapter takes a critical analysis of the Ujamaa philosophy, its past successes and weaknesses, and how it has fared in different times especially in the wake of two very contrasting developments in March 2018 and December 2019, respectively. Firstly, the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) seeks to revive and promote the spirit of Ujamaa through economic gains from intra-African trade. Secondly, the challenges associated with COVID-19 which were largely promoting isolation resulted in the closing of borders leading to countries operating as silos against a common enemy of such magnitude as the pandemic. The chapter also analyses how the European Union has, in practice, applied the spirit of Ujamaa in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the position of the approach in Africa despite the rhetoric on the subject. The chapter concludes that the original models upon which Ujamaa was anchored were largely meant to attain political freedoms in the 1960s to 1980s. These priorities changed when countries became independent leading to less stimulus for continued commitments to regional bodies such as the African Union. The chapter recommends that commitment to the African Ujamaa can be sustained in the long run when arrangements such as the AfCFTA are operational and when member countries derive pragmatic gains with priorities moving from political to economic freedoms.