The African continent's main political body has dealt with a myriad of issues since its inception, including a resurgence of coups, conflict, Ebola and Covid-19 emergencies.
The African Union was established in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) with the aim of promoting unity, peace, and development across the continent. Over the past two decades, the AU has played a crucial role in addressing key challenges facing Africa, such as conflict resolution, economic development, and political stability.
As the AU celebrates its 20-year anniversary, a group of African academics, experts, researchers, and thinkers co-wrote a book - The African Union at 20: African perspectives on progress, challenges, and prospects. According to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), "the book aims to stimulate conversations among practitioners and scholars on how to make the AU more effective. It provokes thinking about the way Africa conceptualises, creates, and runs its institutions."
So since 2002, what progress has the AU made?
Some of the 22 African experts who contributed to the book shared their expertise, observations, and reflections during an online event co-hosted by the ISS and the Canadian Embassy to Ethiopia. The panellists agreed that the past two decades of the AU's performance have been marked by both achievements and challenges, but there is much more to do.
Professor Wafula Okumu, the lead editor, is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Executive Director of The Borders Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. He has taught at various universities in the United States, Canada, and Japan, and advised the United Nations on border issues. He previously served as a conflict analyst and capacity-building expert at the AU and has published several books, book chapters, journal articles, and expert reports on the body.
Okumu said the idea of the book project was conceptualised in early 2021, targeting Africans who had written or worked for the AU over the past 20 years. Okumu said it was written to tell an African story of the AU and it as an organisation for the people, rather than one that focuses on its leaders and flashy Chinese-built structures.
"Most of the books published by the AU over the past two decades do not provide an accurate portrayal of African perspectives on the organisation. So this book actually was a conscious effort for us to provide that African thinking of what they feel about the AU and what they think the AU has contributed to their lives in the past 20 years. And what the AU could do for them in the next 20 years, or as we come down to Agenda 2063."
"We also noted that there was a big void of African-generated knowledge. And we hope that such a book will fill some of them. We also wanted to find out why the AU, despite having main advantages, has underperformed in implementing its position on key instruments, Okumu added. The book notes that there are many opportunities, many challenges, but also many successes," Okumu said.
Co-editor, Dr Andrews Atta-Asamoah, Head of Africa Peace, and Security Governance, at the Institute of Security Studies in Addis Ababa said that the main thing that he sought to convey was to be able to first reflect the true extent of Africa's diversity of reflections in a non-diluted way.
Atta-Asamoah said that across all 17 chapters, we get a clear sense that right after the transformation of the OAU into the AU, there was an attempt to translate the vision into institutions and frameworks to guide the achievement of the actual hopes and aspirations of the people. During the first 10 years, it was very easy to give records of progress and excitement running through Africa and the high expectations that the AU itself had, a sense that there were positive movements in that direction. But the second decade was really when those institutionalised processes were supposed to deliver the actual impact expected by the drafters and the framers of the institution.
"I think that is where you see an actual slowdown of what we could consider as the second stage of achievement, which was actually operationalising them. And so it's very clear where the challenge is. And for us, the story is not just in reflecting these as facts, but actually being able to translate them as key lessons for Africa's task in the remaining decades, especially if we are moving towards the Africa we want," he said.
Ottilia Maunganidze, head of Special Projects in the Office of the Executive Director at the Institute for Security Studies, contributed to the book focusing on constitutionalism the rule of law, and human rights. She reflected first, on what Africa needs. Second, what the AU has done to respond to those needs? Third, what is missing? And then finally, whose responsibility is it to address all these issues that we face?
In her session, Maunganidze explained that we are having this event at a time when questions around constitutionalism the rule of law, and human rights on the African continent are quite loud. She added, "one need only look at the news to question in those countries where there have been unconstitutional changes of government, what is the AU doing to address attempts or successful efforts towards unseating governments that have been duly elected, but also looking to those countries where democracy would be perceived as sound?
So what does Africa need?
"I suppose the title of the chapter, is almost the answer to that Africa needs constitutionalism, it needs the rule of law", Maunganidze said.
"And it needs human rights, not just for the institutions themselves, or those that find themselves in the halls of the African Union, or in Parliament ... but Africa needs constitutionalism for the people of the African continent, over 1.3 billion of us. It needs the rule of law, the belief that no one is above the law. And should anyone transgress that there are accountability mechanisms that ensure that our social contract, as African citizens is still upheld. But importantly, our leaders are held accountable the same way that we are. And finally, Africa needs human rights, not least because we are humans occupying the African continent, but because it is through adhering to human dignity, the right to life, the right to freedom of speech, right of association, that allows us to be able to actually prosper."
Professor Stephen Okhonmina from the University of Benin, Nigeria, worked on Pan-Africanism.
"Looking at the history and the transformations that have happened over the years, it will appear that the idea of Pan-Africanism has itself become a hindrance to unity in Africa, because of the tenets, because of the focus. Because of the issues that Pan-Africanism had desired as an idea to achieve over the years. For example, how do we continue to assume the equality of all Africans and refuse to accept that some states or nations, or individuals, even within these nations have to play leadership roles for Africa to achieve its goal as proposed? How do we continue to assume that we must politically unify as the United States of Africa when indeed, there are oppositions from state policies across Africa to some of these ideas?"
Okhonmina said "rather than de-emphasize current state boundaries, intellectuals, scholars and practitioners ought to give due respect and recognition to the current state structure in Africa and respect the framework as they are, and use them as instruments for the management of these immigration policies like Agenda 2063.
Professor Thomas Tieku, an Associate Professor of Political Science at King's University College at The University of Western Ontario (UWO) and a former Director of African Studies at the University of Toronto, said that it was a pleasure that he was able to contribute. Tieku said that the chapter that he contributed to attempted to map out the kind of leadership that has driven the African Union in the last 20 years and to look ahead as to the kind of leadership that the AU needs for the next 20 years.
"I wanted to write it with an African eye, on it on, an African accent to put it that way. And I looked through the literature on leadership, and you know that there are so many ways of conceptualising or mapping this particular thing. But I decided, I think the one that will reflect the African continent and the needs of Africa is the one that looks at the worldview of the African leaders, that is the way they perceive things, the way they interpret the world, and the way they see things once you strip them of their advisors."
Tieku then identified four types of leadership that have shaped the African Union.
He explained; the first one is what he called the continentalists. Every African leader is a pan-Africanist. But actually, if you peel off the rhetoric and actually look at the cognitive and the worldview, not many of them are actually pan-Africanist in the way the word is used in academic literature.
The second group he identified is what he called the regionalists. These are the leaders who tend to place emphasis on regional economic blocks.
The third leaders identified are what he calls the liberal internationalist. These are leaders who are more interested in ensuring that the AU becomes an agent for free trade and an agent for democracy promotion and an agent of working very closely with a Western counterpart and ensuring that the rule-based international order is maintained in Africa.
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Lastly, he identified what he calls the "statists", the dominant group within it. These are leaders who are committed to the African state system, no matter the rhetoric, when the push comes to shove, most of them are not willing to sacrifice the sovereignty of the state. For them, the AU is supposed to be just an intergovernmental organisation that should coordinate the policies of African leaders and should not interfere in internal affairs or should not be the direct agenda of African Affairs."
Tieku suggested in his chapter that going forward, that the AU will become a very conservative institution, an inter-governmental organisation, very reticent to say anything meaningful and push African leaders if the "statists" dominates the discourse and the discussion within the African Union.
Over the past two decades, the AU has played a crucial role in addressing key challenges facing Africa, such as conflict resolution, economic development, and political stability. One of the significant achievements of the AU is its contribution to peacekeeping efforts on the continent. The organisation has launched several peacekeeping missions in various countries, such as Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and the Central African Republic, to name a few. The AU's peacekeeping efforts have helped to mitigate conflicts and promote stability in these countries.
In addition to peacekeeping, the AU has also prioritised economic development on the continent. The organisation has launched several initiatives aimed at boosting economic growth, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which seeks to create a single market for goods and services in Africa. The AfCFTA has the potential to promote trade, investment, and economic growth on the continent. AfCFTA, which aims to create a single market for goods and services, is expected to boost intra-Africa trade by about $35 billion (€34.4 billion) and also make it easier to attract large-scale infrastructure investment because of the bigger size of the market, reports Deutsche Welle.
The AU has also made significant strides in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment through initiatives such as the African Women's Decade (2010-2020) and the African Women's Leadership Fund, which aims to support the participation of women in leadership positions.
However, there is still much work to be done to address ongoing challenges such as poverty, inequality, and conflict.
