African Co-operation
A New Drive
By: Nabil Osman
Chairman
Chairman, State Information Service
In July 2002, the African Union was launched in Durban, South Africa with the representatives of 51 African countries participating and with those of African sub-regional economic groups and African and non-African organizations attending.
The event has marked a new stage in the history of collective African action, a stage where the continent's priorities would be reordered with the ultimate goal of achieving greater unity and solidarity and with the purpose of accelerating African political, economic and social integration as well as insuring sustained and sustainable development.
Since its creation in 1963, the Organization of African Unity was active supporting the liberation movements in African countries still knuckling under colonialism. The OAU has successfully engaged in a face-off with the racial regime in South Africa-dismantled in 1994; established a regional mechanism for the prevention, management and settlement of African disputes (1993); and helped preserve the borders inherited from the imperialist era (since the Cairo summit of 1964). While it strove to achieve unity and solidarity between African peoples and countries, the OAU has failed in:
1. Countering such problems as debts, draught, desertification, endemic diseases, etc.., despite the several key decisions and resolutions adopted, e.g. the Lagos and Abuja plans of action embraced in 1980 and 1991 respectively.
2. Supporting efforts towards democratization, despite OAU exertions having reached the point of refusing to recognise cases where ruling regimes were put into power by means of military coups. The OAU has also failed to protect human rights on the continent notwithstanding its many efforts in that respect, culminating in the creation of an African committee on human rights and peoples' rights.
All of the above puts the African Union in a confrontation with enormous challenges. It must be admitted, though, that the AU has done well to have the following as part of its functioning mechanism:
1. A summit conference.
2. An executive council.
3. A court of justice.
4. A number of specialised committees.
5. Its very own financial institutions.
6. A pan-African parliament.
7. An economic, social and cultural council.
The success of the African Union, nonetheless, depends on the will and resolve of all of its members. Success is unlikely to be achieved by sheer encouragement but rather by an attempt in earnest to bypass the continent's political, economic and social differences with the goal in mind of improving the African people's quality of life.
Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Algeria and Nigeria are all five called upon as sponsors of the New Partnership for Africa's Development-NEPAD-to intensify their efforts, each country in its own field, in order to help integrate Africa into the international community.
In this, the Summer edition of African Perspectives, the reader will find articles of interest on inter-African relations and co-operation. There are reports on forums held between Africa and the European countries approached for compensation for the years of economic exploitation under imperialism.
Profile is about Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for
Literature. Soyinka has been chosen as evidence of the high esteem in which we hold the African personality. Despite his rejection of the concept of Negritude, Soyinka has earned himself a place under the sun not as a Negro but as a man of genius.
Great hopes, moreover, are pinned on the African Union, whose first summit in Durban has given great promise. There, a contingent of future-determining decisions was adopted which will positively affect Africa's drive for collective action. On agenda for discussion in Durban were some 20 items, politically-, economically- and socially-oriented. The most prominent was that of promoting AU role as observer of elections and as monitor of Africa's democratization process.
It should further be noted here that the AU has decided in favour of supporting NEPAD, which, together with reacting to the challenges currently facing the continent, seeks to accelerate implementation of the social-economic plan approved by the AU. Also, like the AU, NEPAD supports democratization and good governance as well as peace and security throughout Africa.
