Migration narrative: Towards a possible alternative for Africa in the 21st century

Abstract

In her relations with Africa, Europe advances a major migration claim about a “migration crisis” or “refugee crisis” in the era of globalisation. Although human mobility is a fact of human history, the search for greener pastures is ever expanding in a globalising world. Europe has insisted on the view that Africa-to-Europe migration attained a “crisis” point in 2015. Rather than this prevalent migration narrative, which privileges the European Union’s (EU) border surveillance measures, using sophisticated arrays of digital security gadgets that are gulping billions of euros, and the reports about some African governments’ lack of political will to police migration, and EU-AU anti-migration partnerships, etc. – all narratives being constructed from the European perspective – I advance the view for the need for a principal African migration narrative that focuses on the regeneration of Africa. Though this may be underappreciated, this narrative from the African perspective portrays the African embrace of pan-African philosophy emerging from African culture. Moreover, an alternative migration narrative offers a nobler conception of African migrants.