�"The
African Union works against major world interests, which explains why no
Head of State has received congratulations from the West after the Lome
summit," said Prof. Jean-Emmanuel Pondi, director of the Institute
of International Relations (IRIC), during a round-table conference on
the African Union held recently in Cameroon�s coastal city of Douala.
The market of 700 million consumers would certainly try
to impose its own interests on the world arena if it awoke to the
enormity of its strength, its riches and potentialities, Prof. Pondi
said.
"There is no tenable explanation why what is good
for the others is not so for Africa," he argued in reference to
other emerging economic blocs. "Why are people afraid of Africa�s
unity? Who stands to lose in this?"
Dr. Pondi drew a parallel between the hostility that the
name of Colonel Muammar Gadhafi alone arouses in western nations, and
the opposition Dr. Kwame Nkrumah earlier encountered in his efforts to
unify the continent.
Even today, the professor noted, "the promoters of
the African Union are as assailed as those who 37 years ago defended the
Pan-African plan."
He wondered aloud the real motives of currents that hold
the union initiative to be Colonel Gadhafi�s, not Africa�s.
"How can one find it normal that the European Union and other
economic blocs like Southeast Asia be strengthening themselves, and yet
turn around to advise caution when it comes to Africa?" the
Cameroonian scholar in international relations challenged.
"The truth of the matter," he said, "is
that detractors of the Union are fully aware that Africa is steering in
the right direction, hence they (detractors) must do all they can to
cloud the issue and further delay things, if possible."
Prof. Pondi said it was wrong to think that the OAU was
founded in 1963 to unite Africa, affirming the venture has no more than
the fruit of failure.
He posited that when real Pan-Africanists signed the
charter of the OAU in Addis Ababa, what they had in mind was the
liberation of the continent from colonialism and apartheid�so far the
only elements of consensus.
The practical consequence was that its texts were
adopted rather with a view to avoiding that the OAU becomes the hostage
of one of the ideologies in vogue at the time.
The OAU Secretary General, for instance, wielded little
power, a muzzling that has for a long time restricted his leverage of
action and initiative. At the time, Dr. Pondi recalled, it was being
said just like today, that one needed to be careful about Nkrumah:
"He wants to be the President of the whole of Africa ... the time
is not yet ripe for an African union ... we must wait until the year
2000, etc."
Dr. Pondi spiritedly maintained that, because it
listened to other voices rather than its own, Africa�s failure can
today be seen in all spheres.
He warned that the continent�s "subjection to the
whims of the international system could only get worse if it continues
to let others dictate what course to take in the global system."
