By Takura Zhangazha*
The 2013 celebration
of the Golden Jubilee of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now known as
the African Union (AU), will be characterized by feelings of nostalgia and also
of hope. The nostalgia will be for the passion and belief that drove its founding
leaders in the struggles against colonialism and for self determination. It
will also be for how to the greater extent they succeeded in this the key
founding objective of the OAU as it was known then.
It is an
understandable nostalgia because the same unity of purpose, belief and
commitment no longer obtains on the African continent today. And there are many
reasons why this is so. Not least because completion of these struggles
against direct colonialism brought with them the differentiation of African
state and regional agendas by a unipolar world. A development which has
been further compounded by an inability of a majority of past and contemporary
African leaders to remain true to the founding vision and principles of the
OAU.
This is an issue that
the serving and former African leaders will be silently aware of as
they gather in Addis Ababa on 25 May 2013 . The handshakes and photo
opportunities will be many but true continental solidarity will be a thing they
can only remember. In the years that both contemporary and past leaders
transformed the OAU into the AU, there has not been a unitary approach to
solving the continents problems. This has been seen through the complicity of
these same said leaders in aiding direct intervention in African affairs and
crises by global hegemons. This has unfortunately left the AU significantly
weaker. This particularly in the aftermath of the Libyan, Cote d'Ivoire, Central
African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and recently the
Malian political and humanitarian crises.
These political
problems have been further aggravated by the continents placement in the global
economy where it has come to be viewed as an open ‘market’ for finished
products and a primary source for raw materials. The continued weakness
of African states, regional blocs and the AU to negotiate these intentions of
global capital into fairer and people centered deals has led to severe
exploitation of African citizens in the name of an elite leadership few who
have amassed huge personal wealth. And this now includes some heads of state
and government who have decided not to let go of state power in the wake of the
discovery of vast amounts of mineral/energy wealth in their respective
countries.
But there is hope for
the continent. It is a hope that however does not reside in the glossy business
and economic magazines that occasionally define Africa as ‘rising’ on the basis
of its increasing appendage to neo-liberal global capital. Instead, the
optimism that Africa must share is to be found in the initial efforts at
renewing and seeking to broaden the mandate of the OAU through its
restructuring into the AU. This included establishing more inclusive and
oversight components of the AU such as the Pan African Parliament, the African
Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and the overall African Union
Commission together with its attendant executive sub-commissions.
Add to this the then
fledgling New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) which was adopted as
the economic and social development blueprint for the continent by the
AU. Where and when this was launched and implemented the reception on the
continent was one that was to be in tandem with the good intentions of former
presidents Mbeki (South Africa), Obasanjo (Nigeria), Wade (Senegal) and current
Algerian president, Abdel Azziz Bouteflika. The reception in the rest of the
world was also optimistic, not least because both the restructuring of the AU
and the establishment of NEPAD were similar in tone and fashion to the European
Union (EU). In all fairness however, a path to greater African continental
cohesion in the spirit and letter of the OAU had been established. And this
where the hope began and where it must continue.
The continuation of
this hope for the continent resides in further democratizing the AU structures
particularly the Pan African Parliament and the ACHPR to provide greater
oversight on the functions of the AU Commission and be more representative of
the African people as a whole in the work they undertake. Members states, in
order to address the resource challenges of the democratic continental project
that is the AU must remit the necessary funds as far as is pragmatically
possible in order to stem the reliance on foreign aid for peacekeeping missions
and day to day operations of the union.
Further democratizing
the AU also entails a review of NEPAD to make its framework more social
democratic in value and intent, with less technocratic assumptions of mimicry
over and about economic blueprints as they exist in Chicago school type
of economics and social development plans. Neither should such a plan seek to
merely open up Africa to the ‘market’ without due consideration taken into
account over and about the necessity of socio-economic development and service
provision being the primary role of states and governments for the betterment
of the livelihoods of all of Africa’s citizens. This would be regardless of
whether the foreign direct investment is coming from the West or the East.
At 50, the AU is a
testament to the continuation of the popular and real hope that Africa will be
free from the challenges that it was facing at the inception of the OAU as well
as those that have emerged with the passage of time and in the aftermath of the
defeat of direct colonialism. Indeed we all habour nostalgia for an African
leadership that was as focused as the likes of Nkrumah, Nyerere, Cabral,
Machel, Neto, Mbeki, Nasser and others. But we must also have hope and belief
in the future. As informed by an organic knowledge of the past and a firm
understanding of the possibility of a truly democratic future for Africa.
*Takura Zhangazha
writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
