Exposé: The Power [and Weakness] of African Passports

The most powerful African passport is Mauritius, with open travel to 126 countries, then next is the Seychelles, open to 123. South Africa’s is the third most powerful, which receives open travel to 94 countries. The least is Somalia’s, with 32, followed closely by Eritrea’s, with 36. Passports from many African countries allow free and open travel to between 40 and 60 other nations.

Worldwide, the most powerful passports are from the United Kingdom, Finland, and Sweden. They each get open travel to 173 countries. (The United States, which bans most travel to Cuba, allows open travel to 172.) The least powerful are from Afghanistan and Iraq, with 28 and 31, respectively.

The ranking exposes the geopolitics between nations, which play out in the requirements for visitors from certain other countries to obtain visas.

Essentially, passport grants authorization from a citizen’s own country to travel abroad. A visa means express permission from the desired destination to visit there.

Defined as “an endorsement on a passport indicating that the holder is allowed to enter, leave, or stay for a specified period of time in a country,” a visa requires a special application, a period of time, occasionally an interview, and often a substantial fee to receive.

Governments are coy about why visas are required. GOOD reports they reflect “the relationship between two nations, and a country’s stature relative to the rest of the world.”

[Source]