In Kampala, as waiters threaded between tables at the Choate Boutique restaurant, Ras Mubarak leaned into the microphone and delivered a bold message.
The former Ghanaian MP, now the public face of the Trans African Tourism & Unity Campaign, had just driven thousands of kilometres across the continent, through deserts, jungles, armed checkpoints, and border posts that stretch the patience of even the most seasoned traveller.
And after 40,000 kilometres and 23 countries, his message was startlingly simple.
“We believe that a borderless Africa is possible in the next five years,” he said. “And we hope that Uganda will take the lead.”
It was a bold plea aimed squarely at President Yoweri Museveni, one of the continent’s longest-serving leaders and, in Ras’s view, someone with the political capital to champion a radical idea: visa-free travel for all Africans, decades ahead of the African Union’s 2063 target.
“President Museveni has been around for a while,” Ras said. “It’s easier for him to convince his fellow African heads of state that this is the way to go. We appeal to him to make Uganda visa-free, and to rally others to follow.”
Ras Mubarak is not campaigning from an office or think tank. He is doing it from the road. His journey, a voluntary expedition endorsed by Ghana’s government, began in West Africa and has snaked across Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the two Congos, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya before reaching Uganda.
The goal is both symbolic and political: to confront the continent’s physical borders in order to challenge its psychological ones.
“The least our generation can do,” he said, “is to give meaning to the political independence our forefathers fought for, some with their lives, by campaigning for a visa-free Africa.”
For Ras, the journey is an homage to the giants who imagined a United Africa long before the African Union: Kwame Nkrumah, Modibo Keita, Ahmed Sékou Touré, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Morocco’s King Mohammed V. Their 1961 Casablanca vision of a continent with free movement, a common transport system, and shared purpose may have dimmed, but Ras insists it can be reignited.
THE COST OF BORDERS
The campaign is grounded not only in ideology but in economics. Africa’s tourism sector is valued at an estimated $3.3 trillion. The numbers tell their own story: the world’s travellers are ready to move, but Africa’s own citizens are often not.
Visa restrictions remain among the highest of any region. For an African, travelling across the continent can be more difficult than flying to Europe or the Gulf. “Why shouldn’t Africa claim a major share of that tourism revenue?” Ras asked.
“Why, in 2025, should Africans still be blocked from exploring their own continent?” He warned that Africa’s reliance on traditional commodities — gold, diamonds, cocoa — leaves countries vulnerable to global price swings dictated largely by Europe and the United States. “When prices fall, our national budgets collapse,” he said.
“Tourism is different. It is driven by people’s desire to explore. You cannot manipulate that.”
He argues that removing visa barriers would unleash jobs, attract investment, and push infrastructure development across borders. Uganda, which already hosts citizens from many countries with relatively flexible entry policies, is being positioned as a potential trailblazer.
“Uganda must step forward,” Ras said. “If Uganda moves, East Africa moves. If East Africa moves, the continent will follow.” His appeal was welcomed by Isa Kato, CEO of Pristine Tours and vice president of the Uganda Tourism Association, who said tourism has become one of the few sectors powerful enough to reshape Africa beyond economics.
“Tourism can be more than income,” Kato told the room. “It can be a bridge to peace. It brings people into communities, breaks prejudices, and builds unity from the ground up.”
He lamented that not all countries fully embraced the campaign as it passed through, but insisted the movement must continue.
“Our forefathers introduced pan-Africanism, but time has overtaken it. Now Africa must unite to compete globally. China does it. The US does it. Europe does it. It’s our turn.”
The dream of a borderless Africa is as old as independence itself. The question is whether today’s leaders, navigating political caution, security concerns, and immigration fears, are ready to abandon the bureaucratic maze that restricts African movement. But Ras insists the time is now.
“Every border we crossed was a reminder of how far we still have to go,” he said. “But also how much we can gain.”
As Uganda reflects on his appeal, one thing is clear: the idea of a visa-free Africa, once dismissed as distant idealism, is becoming a real political conversation — powered not by diplomats or think tanks, but by an eight-man Ghanaian team driving thousands of kilometres to remind Africans that unity is not just a slogan. It is a choice. And the clock, Ras Mubarak believes, is already ticking.
About the Author
