2023-05-25 14:00:12
The cultural awareness and identity movement articulated in African unity can be traced back to the ideas of Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism was seen as the necessary philosophy around which all people of African descent should unite to develop strategies against racial injustice, inequality and ending colonialism in Africa.
The ideals of Pan-Africanism came to the fore in 1900 when Trinidad lawyer Henry Sylvester Williams organized the First Pan-African Conference, held at Westminster Town Hall in London, and later African-American activist William Edward Burghardt (WEB) Du Bois organized a series of Pan-African Congresses to keep the movement alive during the intervening periods of the 2 world wars.
The Pan-Africanism movement gained greater public recognition through the Congress held in October 1945, when Afro-descendants from the continent and the diaspora came from all corners of the world to participate in the Fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester, UK.
The Congress was the culmination of the numerous attempts that were made to establish collective action to realize the desire of Africa and people of African descent to achieve freedom, justice and recognition of their human rights violated by imperialist structures, colonialism, apartheid and other systems. of injustice and racial inequality.
The Fifth Pan-African Congress was attended by future African presidents and champions of African unity, including Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Hastings Banda of Malawi and Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria.
The Pan-African Congress urged the colonial and subjugated peoples of the world to unite and assert their rights to reject those who seek to control their destinies, with participants encouraging colonized Africans to elect their own governments, as with political power African countries they would obtain social gains, economic and political emancipation.
The journey towards the formation of the OAU
In 1958, at the conference of all African peoples in Accra-Ghana, all the speakers of the conference of West African nations spoke unanimously against the racism and colonialism prevalent in Africa at the time and urged Africans to unite in the struggle for the liberation of the colonialism. The Pan-African Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa (PAFMECA) was formed in 1958 to campaign for the independence of East and Central African countries from colonial and white minority rule, although this movement was short-lived.
The Casablanca group (January 7, 1961), composed of Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Morocco and the Provisional Government of Algeria, felt that political unity and continental integration of the African people among the independent African countries were necessary.
The Monrovia group (May 8–12, 1961) was formed by Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal, Malagasy Republic (now Madagascar), Togo, Dahomey (now Benin), Chad, Niger, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso ), Congo Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Gabon, Ethiopia and Libya required a market-oriented development economy.
To a stunned world that had discarded the possibility of African Unity, all these regional groupings decided to unite to defend the dignity of Africa and form a united front to fight for the complete independence of the African peoples.
In May 1963, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt convened a meeting of thirty-two newly independent African countries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which culminated in the formation of the Organization of African Unity which was a manifestation of the Pan-African vision for an Africa united, free and in control of its own destiny and was commemorated on 25 May (Africa Day) 1963, in the OAU Charter which explained the purpose of the Organization, namely:
1. Promote the unity and solidarity of African States;
2. Coordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the African people;
3. Defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence;
4. Eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa; It is
5. Promote international cooperation, taking into account the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
To achieve these goals, member states committed to harmonizing their policies in the fields of political and diplomatic cooperation; Economic Cooperation, including Transport and Communications; Educational and Cultural Cooperation; Cooperation in Health, Sanitation and Nutrition; Scientific and Technical Cooperation; Defense and security cooperation.
The achievement of these objectives was based on the following seven fundamental principles:
1. The Sovereign Equality of all Member States;
2. Non-interference in the internal affairs of the State;
3. Respect for the Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity of each State and for its inalienable right to independent existence;
4. Peaceful Dispute Resolution by negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration;
5. Unconditional condemnation of all forms of political assassination, as well as subversive activities by neighboring states or any other state;
6. Absolute dedication to the total emancipation of African territories, still dependent; It is
7. Affirmation of a policy of non-alignment of all blocks.
The seat of the OAU General Secretariat was located in the House of African Unity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and was headed by a Secretary General, assisted by five Deputy Secretaries General, all appointed by the Heads of State and Government.
From the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU)
In 1999, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU decided to convene an extraordinary session to accelerate the process of economic and political integration on the continent. On 9 September 1999, the Heads of State and Government of the OAU issued a Declaration in Libya (The Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African Union. In 2002, during the Durban Summit, in South Africa, the African Union (AU) was officially launched as the successor to the Organization of African Unity.
Following the transformation of the OAU into the African Union (AU), Addis Ababa remains the headquarters of the AU with the leadership of the AU Commission made up of elected officials – President, Vice-President and 6 Commissioners and a secretariat made up of officials from the 55 States members.
The decision to relaunch the Pan-African organization of Africa resulted from a consensus among African leaders that, in order to realize Africa’s potential, it was necessary to move from the struggle for decolonization and apartheid, which had been the focus of the OAU, to a greater cooperation and integration of African states to drive economic growth and development in Africa. The continent has rededicated itself to achieving the Pan-African Vision of “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its citizens, representing a dynamic force in the international arena.”
To achieve this vision, the Agenda 2063 Development Framework was developed after extensive consultations involving all formations of African society to define social and economic development, integration, democratic governance and peace and security as pillars of the vision. Agenda 2063 is therefore an Agenda to which all African women, men, girls and boys have contributed directly or indirectly and therefore have a stake in its implementation. The inclusive approach taken in crafting the Agenda 2063 First Ten Year Implementation Plan was instrumental in creating a sense of ownership of the agenda among a range of stakeholders.
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