By Yaw Kissi, a Writer & Commentator on Africa’s Future
You don’t know you’re in a cage until you try to leave.
Ask any African in line at 4 a.m. outside a Western embassy bank statements, invitation letters, proof of ties, and a prayer in hand.
This is not a visa application.
It’s a loyalty test.
We, descendants of kingdoms and civilizations, now beg for access to nations that once begged for our gold, cocoa, rubber, labor, and land.
Now we prove ourselves “credible” before someone behind glass who decides if we are worthy of travel.
This is what the modern passport system has done to us.
It turned freedom of movement into a luxury for colonizers and a privilege for the colonized.
The African passport is among the weakest on Earth not because our people are criminals, but because the global system treats us as threats.
We are not free.
We are managed.
They say borders are for security.
But whose?
A German with history soaked in Namibian blood can enter 190 countries visa-free.
A Namibian, whose land was taken, needs approval to step outside.
A Ghanaian must explain why they want to visit France.
But a Frenchman doesn’t need permission to enter Ghana even though France once taxed, looted, and dominated us.
They don’t just control your economy.
They control your movement, your choices, your dignity.
That passport in your hand?
It’s a document of containment.
And it’s not just about travel.
It’s about respect.
An African CEO can be strip-searched in Heathrow.
An African student deported for being “high risk.”
An African diplomat humiliated in an airport line.
Your passport makes you guilty until proven otherwise.
They tell us: “Build your country before you travel.”
But they never say that to Australians or Americans.
Only to Africans.
Because they fear what we might discover if we could move freely:
That we are more than enough.
That the African mind, free and unfiltered, is power.
That our true export is genius not just raw materials.
So what’s the solution?
We must dismantle the myth that mobility is a Western gift.
We need an African passport that’s not symbolic, but strong.
One that commands respect.
One that opens doors across the continent and beyond.
We need real policies, visa-free agreements, and a Pan-African identity that rejects Berlin’s borders.
We must stop defining strong passports by access to the West.
We must define them by access to Africa.
We must roam our land freely.
Fly from Accra to Cairo without five layovers and a visa.
Live, learn, love, and lead without colonial permission slips.
Your passport is a cage.
But cages can be broken.
And when they are, the lion will no longer roar from behind bars
It will roam.
Ask any African in line at 4 a.m. outside a Western embassy bank statements, invitation letters, proof of ties, and a prayer in hand.
This is not a visa application.
It’s a loyalty test.
We, descendants of kingdoms and civilizations, now beg for access to nations that once begged for our gold, cocoa, rubber, labor, and land.
Now we prove ourselves “credible” before someone behind glass who decides if we are worthy of travel.
This is what the modern passport system has done to us.
It turned freedom of movement into a luxury for colonizers and a privilege for the colonized.
The African passport is among the weakest on Earth not because our people are criminals, but because the global system treats us as threats.
We are not free.
We are managed.
They say borders are for security.
But whose?
A German with history soaked in Namibian blood can enter 190 countries visa-free.
A Namibian, whose land was taken, needs approval to step outside.
A Ghanaian must explain why they want to visit France.
But a Frenchman doesn’t need permission to enter Ghana even though France once taxed, looted, and dominated us.
They don’t just control your economy.
They control your movement, your choices, your dignity.
That passport in your hand?
It’s a document of containment.
And it’s not just about travel.
It’s about respect.
An African CEO can be strip-searched in Heathrow.
An African student deported for being “high risk.”
An African diplomat humiliated in an airport line.
Your passport makes you guilty until proven otherwise.
They tell us: “Build your country before you travel.”
But they never say that to Australians or Americans.
Only to Africans.
Because they fear what we might discover if we could move freely:
That we are more than enough.
That the African mind, free and unfiltered, is power.
That our true export is genius not just raw materials.
So what’s the solution?
We must dismantle the myth that mobility is a Western gift.
We need an African passport that’s not symbolic, but strong.
One that commands respect.
One that opens doors across the continent and beyond.
We need real policies, visa-free agreements, and a Pan-African identity that rejects Berlin’s borders.
We must stop defining strong passports by access to the West.
We must define them by access to Africa.
We must roam our land freely.
Fly from Accra to Cairo without five layovers and a visa.
Live, learn, love, and lead without colonial permission slips.
Your passport is a cage.
But cages can be broken.
And when they are, the lion will no longer roar from behind bars
It will roam.