Malema: Africa can’t grow under foreign rule — calls for one president, one currency

Julius Malema

Cape Town — EFF leader Julius Malema has called on Africans to challenge laws he says perpetuate oppression and undermine human dignity.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference on 24 August in Enugu State, Malema said Africa has been subjected to “the laws of the oppressor,” which he argued continue to disadvantage ordinary people.

The conference, held under the theme “Stand Tall, Stand Firm,” brought together legal professionals from across Nigeria to discuss pressing issues affecting the profession and the continent.

The EFF said in a statement that the conference hosted more than 17,000 legal professionals from Nigeria and around the world, including the Sultan of Sokoto and spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslims, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, as well as the Governor of Enugu State.

At its core, the gathering focused on the relationship between law and politics and the responsibility of advancing justice in Africa and the Global South.

Malema emphasised the need to rebuild and strengthen the historical ties between South Africa and Nigeria, arguing that such cooperation is vital for the economic advancement of both nations and for positioning them at the forefront of Africa’s reindustrialisation.

He emphasised the need for unity among Africans, urging them to look beyond the borders imposed by imperialists as a means of reclaiming economic sovereignty from Western nations and securing the continent’s rightful place in global affairs.

“The President spoke strongly about the need for African unity, making it clear that the continent cannot grow without bold and decisive steps toward integration.

“He called for the establishment of one President, one army, one Parliament, and one currency for the African continent.

“This, he stressed, is the only path through which the continent can fully assert its sovereignty and shield itself from external manipulation and exploitation,” said the EFF.

Malema said the laws that Africans have followed for centuries have been regarded as inferior by Western oppressors, giving them an excuse to impose their own systems and enslave Africans under their regimes.

“Our traditional laws have been treated as inferior to Roman/Dutch law or English law. To be an African has meant that for generations we are not worthy of the laws and the rights that make us human beings.

“And for that reason, it was legal to abuse us to enslave us. To steal our mineral wealth and oil and to destroy and kill our heritage, history and even our lives,” said Malema.

Malema added that the parliament and judiciary observed today were created without the inclusion of African people and were designed to exploit them while maintaining superiority over Africans.

“In South Africa, our freedom, our oppression, our resistance, all had law at the center of it. Under apartheid it was legal to restrict the movements of Africans to labour reserves called townships.

“And to teach us the inferior education, so that we could only be servants of white masters.

“All of those problems were legal, and it took brave men and women to say that ‘if the oppression of Africans is lawful then such a law is unjust and must be opposed’,” said Malema.

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Compiled by Anda Tolibadi

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