The road to an African Union
 For 38
years, African nations have struggled with the idea of creating a
continental body to ease the negative effects of European
interference in Africa's destiny.
by Ahmed-Rufai
International Editor
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(Editor�s note: In July, the Organization of African
Unity is scheduled to meet in Lusaka, Zambia, and continue its move
toward an African Union, similar to the European Union. The African
Union, which replaces the OAU, has a 12-month transition period that
began May 26. The details of how the continental body will function are
still being worked out. The following article gives the historical
background on the seeds of this potentially powerful grouping.)
(FinalCall.com)�"Never before have a people had
within their grasp so great an opportunity for developing a continent
endowed with so much wealth. Individually, the independent states of
Africa, some of them potentially rich, others poor, can do little for
their people. Together, by mutual help, they can achieve much. But the
economic development of the continent must be planned and perused as a
whole. A loose confederation designed only for economic co-operation
would not provide the necessary unity of purpose. Only a strong
political union can bring about full and effective development of our
material resources for the benefit of our people."
The above quote from the 1961 book "I Speak of
Freedom" by Ghana�s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah sums up the
dilemma that Africans faced in early post- independence years.
For 38 years, African nations have struggled with the
idea of creating a continental body to ease the negative effects of
European interference in Africa�s destiny.
This interference was seen in 1884 when European
nations met in Berlin and sliced up Africa among themselves. They did
not take Africans� ethnic diversity into consideration. The fact that
most African societies had their own governments was not considered
either. Thus the Yoruba people, previously united under the Oyo Empire
found themselves now divided into the colonies of Dahomey, Nigeria and
the Protectorate of Lagos. The Asante of the Asante Empire found
themselves in Ivory Coast (now Cote d�Ivoire) and Ghana. The Mossi were
divided into Ghana and Burkina Faso (then called Upper Volta) while the
Kanuri of Kanem-Bornu Empire became colonial subjects in Nigeria,
Cameroun and Chad. In southern Africa, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia,
Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe became countries that developed out of
not only the actions of Shaka, the Zulu warrior, but also intrigues of
British settlers led by Cecil Rhodes.
Africans challenged this European interference. But
in the face of superior military strength and technology, Africans�
military response proved futile.
The very success of the European colonization also
set in motion nationalist and Pan-Africanist forces, which later led to
African independence. Pan-Africanism was pushed in 1900 by Blacks in the
Diaspora led by the Trinidadian, Henry Sylvester Williams. It was not
until 1945 when Africans on the continent became leaders of the movement
through anti-colonial struggle. This culminated in the 1945 Manchester
Conference, which affirmed the right of all colonial peoples to control
their destiny and demanded decolonization.
Between 1945 and 1960, territorial nationalism and
Pan-Africanism were perceived by many in Africa as inextricably linked
together. When Kwame Nkrumah stated that the independence of Ghana was
meaningless until it was linked with the total liberation of Africa, he
was expressing the hope of many African leaders who almost instinctively
joined the Pan-Africanist bandwagon.
As African colonies became independent and sovereign
states in the early 1960s, strategies for continental unity were
explored and debated by nationalist statesmen.
After independence, which began with Ghana on March
6, 1957, many of the newly independent states jealously guarded their
newly acquired sovereignty. The main struggle was, therefore, getting
the new continental leaders to sacrifice their national interest for
continental survival. That dream was realized on April 26, 2001, when
Nigeria became the 36th nation to sign the instrument for the
establishment of the African Union and formally brought to end the
Organization of African Unity.
The immediate post-independence debate focused on
Kwame Nkrumah and his critics. It was intense, emotionally charged and
ideologically based. But it was a healthy one between confederalist
ideologues and federalists.
The confederalists argued their approach would have
little assault on national sovereignty. Federalists, on the other hand,
called for a much more radical approach, shifting political loyalty from
its narrow territorial base to a continental base. This debate resulted
in the division of Africa into militant and moderate camps. The former
was outwardly socialist and known as the Casablanca group of states. The
moderates were predominantly conservative and called the Monrovia group.
President Nkrumah articulated the view of the
impatient African radical, who had suffered greatly from the regime of
colonialism. He saw himself as a colonial prison "graduate."
Colonialism, as well as neocolonialism, were to him the true face of
white racial arrogance, indeed its quintessence.
In his view, the only solution was immediate
political integration of Africa�s mini-states into a federal political
union. Mr. Nkrumah provided the argument of those who believed "Africa
Must Unite Now!"
This approach alone, the Nkrumanists perceived, could
provide the best solutions to the problems facing the continent as a
whole.
The moderate view was led by Nigeria�s Prime Minister
Tafawa Balewa. Mr. Balewa represented a more pragmatic approach to
African unity. The Balewa school, to which a great majority of leaders
of independent African states belonged, believed a gradual race to unity
was the best insurance against premature derailment.
They argued that a solid attitudinal change among
African leaders was a precondition for achieving a constitutional
agreement that reflected an African loyalty shift away from
nation-states to a continental community.
As President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia explained in
1964, "To know one another better, we must first learn to respect one
another and understand the problems of each in the interest of all. Our
minds must get accustomed to the idea of unity with its material and
moral implications. A thorough psychological preparation is needed and
without it nothing worthwhile can be accomplished."
Realization of the dream of an African Union
crystallized in Nigeria�s capital, Abuja, in 1991 when OAU leaders
signed the protocol for establishing the African Economic Community.
Then came the Sirte Declaration of September 9, 1999 in Libya, which
laid the groundwork for the African Union. The ratification on April 26,
2001 by Nigeria made the African Union a legal framework for more than
two-thirds of the Motherland�s nations.
At Final Call presstime, 43 countries�seven
more than the two-third member nation requirement�had ratified African
Union documents, an indication of the current attitudinal change on the
continent.
In the words of OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed
Salim, between 1963 and 2001 "have been thirty-eight years of holding on
together as a people, deriving strength in our common identity, and
pursuing the vision of a shared destiny."
Mr. Salim said the African Union was inspired by "the
recognition of the imperative necessity for Africans to pool together
our strengths, solidify our unity and solidarity and dedicate ourselves
to our common destiny. Only by doing so shall we be able to live in
dignity and prosperity as a people."
The African Union, he declared, marks the rebirth of
Africa into a new entity, much stronger, more capable and closely
connected to the people. Unity, Mr. Salim said, is not an "option."
"After all, the challenges that face us, including
the HIV-AIDS pandemic, natural and human made disasters, abject poverty,
an excruciating debt burden, the recalcitrant conflicts and tensions
invariably exert a collective rather than an individual impact. We need
to be together," he said.
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