Lusaka, Zambia — "This historic effort will require leadership, courage and willingness to depart from the ways of the past, if it is to do for Africa what the European Union has done for Europe".
Those are the words of Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, himself an African from Ghana. He was speaking about the newly-created African Union (AU) which is to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
Annan's address was delivered at the 37th OAU summit, which ended in Lusaka, Zambia this week, and has prepared the ground for the transition period into the African Union. The AU was inspired by the European Union and styled on other global continental bodies in Asia and America.
But will it work?
The African Union is being touted as the continental body that will pave the way to a better life for all Africans. It is a tall order. In less than a year, the new interim secretary-general of the OAU, Cote d'Ivoire's former foreign minister, Amara Essy, must try to steer the continent towards a semblance of unity and development that will put Africa firmly on the global stage.
Analysts warn that too much faith is being placed in a document that makes more sense in theory than in practice. They say African leaders are rushing to create what should be a more effective political and economic union without enough thought, thanks to fears of being left trailing in the rapid race of globalisation. The observers conclude that the timetable for trying to achieve these goals is unrealistic and could backfire.
The right leadership?
Then there are those qualities cited by Annan. Does the current continental leadership have what it takes? The answer is yes and no. There are serving African leaders of vision and integrity, who are competent and committed. There are others who have not lived up to high hopes and expectations of their election and have manifestly failed their people.
There are hawks and doves, there are movers and shakers and there are those leaders who delight in obstructing and thwarting progress. In short, Africa has some leaders who are a credit to the continent and others who are a disgrace.
Kofi Annan went straight to the point when he stressed that the resolution of the many conflicts in Africa was essential to making the continent work. But he also pointed out that these were "in a great measure the result of misguided leadership which is unwilling or unable to put the people's interests first." He told a news conference: "No one can say that 'My country has peace and therefore conflicts in this or that country are not my responsibility.' No one wants to invest in bad neighbourhoods, so we need to clean up our neighbourhood."
The OAU, created in 1963, dedicated most of its resources and energy to the fight against colonialism in Africa and backed the Frontline states and the continent in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. The priorities and ambitions of the African Union will be different.
A new plan for Africa
The African Initiative, which is a merger of the Millennium African Recovery Programme (MAP) spearheaded by South African leader Thabo Mbeki, and the Plan Omega proposed by Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, was promoted in Lusaka as a blueprint for the regeneration of Africa.
The Initiative calls on African leaders to consolidate democracy and development on the continent and strive for prosperity. It urges the richer, industrialized world to increase investment, assistance and confidence in Africa.
The plan, one of the many challenges facing Africa, was presented to the leaders at the Lusaka summit.
In his opening remarks, the outgoing OAU secretary-general, Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania, said: "This summit must provide answers to the questions that occupy the minds of our people, including the form and nature of the AU that we are establishing. Is the Union merely the OAU in a different name?" Salim asked.
Africans all over the continent are asking the same question and hoping the AU is not. Salim, who has occupied the top post for the past 12 years, was referring to the lack of political clout, and perhaps more significantly money, of the OAU to achieve its aims, including the resolution of the devastating regional wars.
Al-Gaddafi's role
Doubt also hangs over the intentions of the Libyan leader, Muammar Al-Gaddafi, who, as the star attraction, dominated the OAU summit in Lusaka. The Guide, as Al-Gaddafi is known in Libya, is reported to have contributed US$1m to the fund for the transformation of the OAU into the AU. He has been credited with making the vision of the African Union possible and being the chief architect of the new union.
But there were worries expressed in whispers in Lusaka about whether the Guide of the Libyan Revolution could really be the helmsman of the continental revolution. Questions are being asked about Al-Gaddafi's motives. Old-timers noted the absence in Al-Gaddafi's speeches of any mention of the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity, among them Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, who promoted pan-Africanism more than forty years ago.
There was also no open talk of the ferocious and sometimes murderous attacks on black Africans in Libya by local citizens, furious with The Guide for consorting with and financing 'blacks' at the expense of Arab-Africans in his own country. They clearly do not share Al-Gaddafi's desire to encourage pan-Africanism.
Striking a strident note as he addressed the closing session of probably the last OAU summit, Al-Gaddafi said of the AU: "We cannot be neutral here. We are here for the Africans, not the Europeans. We are here for the blacks, not for the whites."
Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the US-based Nation of Islam in Chicago and a friend of Al-Gaddafi, sat behind The Guide during the closing ceremony.
The Libyan leader played to the gallery, and found his way into the hearts of a group of students in Lusaka earlier in week, when he reminded them that, in colonial times' Europeans "treated us (Africans) like animals in the jungle. As a matter of fact, they hunted us in our villages and in our homes. We suffered from them. Why should we imitate them when there is no common denominator between us and them?" asked Al-Gaddafi.
"Wanting to mimic the US takes us back," the Libyan leader warned his African counterparts, implying that the drafters of the AU had drawn too much from Western models. "We want a united and integrated Africa, that's what we require."
Backwards or forwards?
Several analysts and delegates in Lusaka dismissed The Guide's discourse and ideas as old hat, the usual attacks on the West and harking back to a past era, at a time when Africans should be looking forward.
Al-Gaddafi's detractors portray his recent interest and influence in Africa as largesse which comes at a price for the rest of the continent. They say the Libyan's tactics relegate other African leaders to a secondary position, strips them of importance and dignity and preys on poor African nations and their people.
An Al-Gaddafi aide told journalists that Africans "talked about dignity. But there is not much dignity when the presidents ask him (Gaddafi) for money. He always gives them money, but he never tries to influence their policies." Others disagree, saying that Al-Gaddafi has clear ideas about what he wants and how he intends to get it. "He has built his support in the OAU to strengthen Libya's position in international organizations," said one delegate. African support has helped Libya's slow and chequered return to the world fold, after years as a global pariah in international isolation and under UN sanctions for supporting terrorism.
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Hopes for a better future
Whatever Al-Gaddafi may hope to get out of his fellow African leaders, the people of the continent want the birth of the African Union to herald peace, stability and increased prosperity. They hope that the AU - as a stronger and more effective continental organisation - will bring them those benefits.
The new chairman of the OAU, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, told the summit that African leaders had agreed that the new union would form a continental parliament and a central bank. But the AU would initially concentrate on creating an assembly of heads of state, a council of foreign ministers, a secretariat and a permanent committee of ambassadors. The union's charter also envisages a common currency and court of justice.
Perhaps more important to a larger African audience was Chiluba's mention of greater unity accompanied by speedy and decisive action. "Africa does not have the luxury of time. If we hesitate, or procrastinate in implementing the decision we have taken concerning the establishment of the African Union, time will pass us by. We are living in an era where change takes place in milliseconds" said the Zambian leader.
Fine words and noble ambitions, say the skeptics, who doubt that the African Union will bring either real change, political will or the necessary resources to enhance the lives of most Africans, especially the poor.
