MFI/Radio France Internationale (Paris)
Faycal Bouzennout
3 July 2002
analysis
Durban, South Africa — Organizing A Union For Africa - Durban 2002 (4 of 11)
Organization of African Unity (OAU), founded within the context of the struggle against colonialism, was born on May 25, 1963 in Addis-Ababa. It reflected the aspiration of Africans to unite in order to promote the solidarity of the continent against all forms of imperialism. It was also the result of diplomatic battles between Heads of State.
Two camps emerged at an early stage : that of the "Monrovia group", regrouping "moderates" who wanted to see regional integration go through stages; and the "Casablanca Group", consisting of revolutionary leaders in favour of a rapid integration. This group included Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, Egypt's Nasser, Algeria's Ben Bella and Guinea's Sekou Toure. This antagonism and the compromises that were reached resulted in a first step toward the realisation of the pan-African ideal but at the same time paved the way for lasting African of divisions.
The OAU system
The OAU system was based on a Charter adopted at the 1963 Constituent Conference by 30 independent countries. The Charter, signed in the Ethiopian capital, was the juridical basis defining the principles and functioning of the organisation's various bodies. It affirmed the sovereign equality of all member states, the respect of the principle of non-interference, and of the principle of territorial sovereignty and integrity, and called for the peaceful settlement of differences.
The supreme organ of the OAU was the conference of Heads of State and Government, the decision-making body which alone was entitled to rule on common problems. It met in ordinary session once a year. Extraordinary summits could be convened. The Council of Foreign Ministers was charged with preparing the conference. The General Secretariat, based in Addis-Ababa, was the executive body seeing through the decisions taken by the Heads of State. The General Secretary was named by secret ballot requiring a two-thirds majority, at the Conference of Heads of State and Government. He was appointed for a four-year term and was eligible for re-election. Finally, committees were established to complete the administrative machinery. Different specialized committees were in charge of cooperation in economic, social-educative, cultural, military and scientific matters. The Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration Committee was the organ for the peaceful settlement of differences.
At the 1979 Monrovia Summit the idea was launched of elaborating a legal instrument to protect "the fundamental rights of man and democratic freedoms". The African Charter on the rights of man and peoples was definitively adopted at the end of the 1981 Conference of Heads of State in Nairobi and went into effect in 1986.
The OAU and crisis management
From the beginning, the main objectives of the organisation were the elimination of colonial rule and the struggle against racial discrimination. The OAU supported all national liberation movements. It put pressure on the international community, partly via the United Nations, to condemn colonial regimes and the segregationist regimes in Southern Africa. As early as 1963, an African Liberation Coordination Committee was created to help emancipate all of the remaining African territories still not independent. Resolutions were regularly adopted at the Conferences of Heads of State and Government to condemn Portugal, until all its African colonies had achieved independence; Rhodesia; South Africa for its apartheid policies; as well as Israel, under pressure from Arab states.
In 1989, Africa was finally freed of the last vestiges of colonialism with the historic victory of Swapo in Namibia. Africa also saw the victory of its fight against apartheid with the freeing of Nelson Mandela and his election as President of South Africa. A part from these glorious dates, the organisation's action admittedly remained very limited in many areas. It often turned out to be powerless when faced with the antagonisms between African countries and the multitude of conflicts that they produce. OAU action in the area of finding peaceful settlements to inter-African differences was globally inefficient. The weaknesses of the Addis-Ababa Charter can partially explain these shortcomings; nothing obliged member states to recognise its competence in such affairs. Moreover, the Charter did not provide for any permanent OAU armed force. In addition its budget was insignificant, and this situation was made worse by the many unpaid arrears in contributions. The main reason so little was achieved in resolving conflicts nevertheless remains the lack of political will of member states who were more worried about preserving their sovereignty.
The Western Sahara affair, which poisoned OAU debates ever since 1965, provoked the departure in 1984 of a founding member, Morocco, which had protested the admission of the RASD to the OAU in 1981. This divided the OAU into two camps. Elsewhere the OAU tried, on numerous occasions, to solve conflicts by deploying an intense policy of appeasement or by sending in ad hoc forces, as in Chad between 1981 and 1992. These missions, not foreseen in the Charter, proved to be more efficient, because they were more in tune with the realities of the African continent, than the Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration Commission alone.
With the end of the bi-polar world, brought about by the fall of the communist bloc in the early 1990's, the OAU had to redefine its conflict management policies. Moreover, the proliferation of inter-state conflicts in Africa, where a predatory logic was predominant, changed the political landscape. On June 30, 1993, at the end of the Cairo Summit, the organization's member states ratified a mechanism for the prevention, management and settlement of conflicts. The main organ was made up of leaders of countries on the acting bureau of the Conference of Heads of State and Government. This mechanism introduced an innovation compared with the 1964 Protocol : The central organ could now be called to step in, in certain cases, without the consent of the parties to the conflict. Given the great number of bloody conflicts in the 1990's (Rwanda, Burundi, former Zaire, Angola, Somalia...) the mechanism failed to meet the expectations of the continent. However, one should not overlook the fact that it was not entitled to step in on its own without the approval of the United Nations Security Council, charged with peacekeeping and international security. It also showed great visibility in the resolution of several African conflicts, such as the Ethiopia-Eritrea war, the crisis in the Comoros and the conflict between Chad and the Central African Republic.
The OAU faced with economic problems in the continent
The OAU was unable to find satisfactory answers to the economic problems of the continent. From the 1980's, the organisation nevertheless increasingly turned its efforts towards questions linked to development and to economic cooperation. In April 1980, at the Lagos Summit, the Heads of State and Government ratified a plan of action in favour of African economic development encouraging economic and social development and economic integration, and the creation of national, local and regional institutions to facilitate the achievement of independence and self-sufficiency. From November 30 to December 1, 1987, in Addis-Ababa, an extraordinary summit was solely devoted to the continent's foreign debt problem, estimated at nearly 200 billion dollars. The summit requested an easing of the conditions of debt repayment and an increase in the prices of raw materials. On June 5, 1991, the Abuja Summit, signed a treaty creating an African Economic Community to develop within 30 years an African common market as well as an African Monetary Fund and a Central Bank. What the OAU achieved or did not achieve will remain very controversial. The OAU has often been accused of being little more than a talk shop, a "syndicate of presidents". But it would be wrong to forget the intense diplomatic work carried out despite the shortage of personnel and finance, and the efforts to turn united Africa into a tangible reality.
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