Visa hassles and dear flights: is the dream of seamless intra-African journey lifeless? | Africa

For the Kenyan DJ Coco Em, planning the best way to get round Africa for gigs can take as a lot time as crafting her setlists.

Last November she was as a result of carry out in Cape Verde, the archipelago state off the coast of west Africa, travelling from Nairobi by way of Europe – the one out there route – on a one-year Schengen visa. But on the airport, the airline refused to let her board.

The DJ, who was born Emma Mbeke Nzioka, stated she was informed she had been deemed a flight danger, regardless of holding a sound visa and a return ticket with one other airline. The airline’s employees insisted that she purchase a return flight with them as a substitute.

“Where does it say ‘you must fly back on the same airline you left with’?” she recalled saying. No reply got here – solely an ultimatum: pay inside quarter-hour or keep grounded. Coco Em refused, requested her paperwork, and went house.

Travel hassles are a well-recognized criticism for artists, entrepreneurs and on a regular basis travellers on the continent. In idea, Africa’s 1.4 billion individuals are extra linked than earlier than via commerce blocs and bold infrastructure plans, however in actuality intra-continental journey stays cumbersome and costly.

“One needs a sense of humour to travel in Africa,” stated the Nigerian author Helon Habila, who just lately needed to spend an evening within the Ivorian metropolis of Abidjan after one leg of his journey from the Guinea capital, Conakry, to the Nigerian capital, Abuja – a three-hour direct flight if such a route existed – was unexpectedly delayed.

No true freedom of motion?

Coco Em lamented that African nations have been perpetuating restrictions on their residents. “These outdated models of movement restriction are so counterproductive,” she stated, stating that when individuals travelled for leisure or work they added worth to economies.

The African Union (AU) launched a passport for visa-free journey inside Africa in July 2016, however it’s nonetheless largely restricted to AU officers and some diplomats. Even Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest particular person, nonetheless faces difficulties utilizing it. In 2023 the billionaire businessman complained: “We go with a British guy or maybe a Nigerian holding a British passport [and] he is allowed in that country, but we are still arguing and debating about my visa, and I am the one with the money.”

Only Benin, Kenya, Seychelles and the Gambia presently enable all African passport holders to enter visa-free. Regional blocs enable for freedom of motion, however that promise shouldn’t be all the time honoured: on a current journey by this reporter to the Gambia, Senegalese and Gambians have been let via without cost however Nigerians and Sierra Leoneans have been made to pay unreceipted sums of 1,000–2,000 CFA (£1.30-£2.60).

Bureaucratic obstacles are usually not the one obstacle to shifting round. Rail hyperlinks are sparse and cross-border bus journeys are gradual. However, eliminating visa necessities is seen because the quickest manner of unblocking journey.

Visa processing – each for nations inside and out of doors the continent – is an enormous enterprise. Governments generate thousands and thousands from software charges, insurance coverage, and journey prices that candidates by no means recuperate within the occasion {that a} visa shouldn’t be granted.

Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo share a 1,449-mile border however require travellers to purchase $50 (£36.80) visas on both sides. Some visas price much more.

Flight prices usually seem illogical. Abidjan and the Ghanaian capital, Accra, two of the largest cities in west Africa, are solely an hour aside by air, however a ticket can price $500 (£368), the identical worth as for much longer routes.

“Travel in Africa is such a mess,” stated the Zambian activist Joseph Kalimbwe. “Even in Zambia, there’s always that black-on-black edge. Chinese and Indians living in Lusaka don’t get targeted, but our immigration officers target fellow Africans from Burundi and the DRC. We must be able to do better as a people.”

Dream versus actuality

The dream of seamless intra-African journey isn’t new. In 1998, African ministers adopted the Yamoussoukro resolution, a landmark settlement to decrease airline ticket costs and enhance connectivity. Nearly three many years later, it’s nowhere close to full implementation. High airport taxes and costs, restricted routes, and visa hurdles proceed to hamper journey plans.

The African Continental Free Trade Area, launched in 2021 to spice up commerce amongst member states and ease the motion of products and folks, can also be but to be absolutely applied.

Coco Em recalled an event in 2019 when she needed to move via Saudi Arabia and Italy to get to Tunisia for a efficiency. At the boarding gate, airline workers requested her to carry out to “prove” she was a DJ.

Policymakers are actually taking steps to treatment the scenario.

The Single African Air Transport Market, launched in 2018, builds on the Yamoussoukro resolution and has attracted greater than 35 signatory states. Its objective is to totally open the skies of member nations. Some nations are additionally experimenting with new visa insurance policies.

Meanwhile, Coco Em has taken issues into her personal arms, founding an initiative known as Pass Pass that collects analysis on systemic boundaries, whereas serving to visa seekers use her expertise as a serial applicant.

Pass Pass just lately collaborated with Nairobi’s restaurant-film-theatre house Unseen Nairobi for the cultural alternate Vuka Mpaka (“cross the border” in Kiswahili), which connects Kenyan creatives with friends from totally different African nations.

“I’m tired of venting about the problem,” she stated. “I’m more focused on what solutions we’re trying to build.”