In exploration of the question of what makes Africa and CARICOM so well suited to cooperation, it became imperative for me to establish a few fundamentals
The work of Murithi (2019), in addressing the prospects of a unitary African State, must be explored. Murithi’s (2019) work does not directly address South-South cooperation. Instead, it seeks to examine the role of the African diaspora in shaping different idealisms of the unitary African state; to a certain extent – as far as the elements of the diaspora under microscope are Southern states – a kind of South-South co-operation in and of itself. Even then, what is of primacy to this piece is the demographic analysis that Murithi (2019) undertakes in his quest to examine how the African diaspora can assist the mission of African integration.
Murithi (2019) distinguishes between three groups of states with regards to the ethnic composition of both their populace and gubernatorial institutions. The first group, Caribbean states, “including Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, etc.” (Murithi 2019 pp. 4) is distinguished from group two by the ethnic composition of both its population and gubernatorial institutions. According to Murithi (2019), “African peoples in these states make up the majority of citizens and their government is composed of representatives of African descent”. The second group, Murithi (2019) labels “stateless” on the premise that African peoples in such states – the United States of America (USA) being put forth as a prime example – are considered a minority group.
The pointed distinctions between Group 1 and Group 2 are compelling in their calls for consideration for it is intimated – though subtly – that because Group 1 shares such strong fraternity in its ethnic composition with the continent – that is, African peoples make up the majority of its population – its populace is comfortable and is more likely to aid the cause of African integration through South-South Cooperation as compared to Group 2, which because of its “stateless” nomenclature, is more likely to aid the cause of African integration through repatriation. It is also of note that the elements of Group 2 hail from some of the world’s more developed states, precluding their interactions with the continent from being labeled SSC. Ultimately, Murithi’s work presents similarities in culture and ethnic demography as qualifiers that lend to functional South-South Cooperation.
