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The struggle for independence

“Vade Retro domum” - “Nolo Relinquere”

"To the European colonial Powers would be guaranteed the possession of their colonies,
which, in isolation, they would sooner or later be bound to lose to World Powers."

Coudenhove-Kalergi, Pan-Europe, 178-179.

...Africa was seen as a crucible in which a united Europe, or at the very least European

solidarity, could be forged. If the colonies had long been sites of experimentation in new
technologies of governance by imperial powers, here Africa was to be the site of

experimentation for a whole new scale of governance. In this, the General Act of the
Berlin Conference loomed large, both as a precedent for this sort of ambition, and as a

failure that had to be overcome.

European co-operation in Africa, it was hoped, would both performatively create and
prove the efficacy of supranational governance, so that it could be introduced in Europe

itself. "

"Eurafrica as a Pan-European vehicle for Central European colonialism (1923-1939)" 100
Benjamin Thorpe
School of Geography, University of Nottingham
*****
“ Eurafrica (a portmanteau of "Europe" and "Africa"), refers to the German idea of
strategic partnership between Africa and Europe. In the decades before World War II,

German supporters of European integration advocated a merger of African colonies as a
first step towards a federal Europe. As a genuine political project, it played a crucial role

in the early development of the European Union but was largely forgotten afterwards. In
the context of a renewed EU Strategy for Africa, and controversies about a Euro-
mediterranean Partnership, the term has gone through a revival of sorts in recent years.

***
The term had already been coined by the time of the high imperial period of the

nineteenth century. It played a role in some technocratical fantasies, such as the
Atlantropa vision in the 1920s and the 1930s (compare the recently failed Desertec
project). It then aimed to integrate African colonies providing raw materials with Europe.

Erich Obst was one of the propagators during World War II.

The 1920s saw Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi founding the first popular movement for
a united Europe. His Paneuropean Union saw an Eurafrican alliance using the European

colonies as a "dowry" as an important base of Europe’s ability to found a third pillar
against the Americas and Asia. Coudenhove-Kalergis' belief had racial undertones as he