Africa will celebrate Africa Day on Monday. But for many Africans it is just another day off.
There will be speeches and sloganeering from the political establishment talking about African unity and integration. In essence, though, the day is just another ritual on the African political calendar.
What is Africa Day? Africa Day is an annual worldwide celebration observed on 25 May, and commemorates the founding in 1963 of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which later evolved into the African Union (AU).
It celebrates the continent’s progress, cultural heritage and ongoing journey toward unity and full decolonisation.
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The African Union’s vision is: “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in global arena.
“This vision of a new, forward looking, dynamic and integrated Africa will be fully realised through relentless struggle on several fronts and as a long-term endeavour.”
The AU has shifted focus from supporting liberation movements in countries under colonialism and apartheid, as envisaged by the OAU since 1963 and the constitutive act, to spearheading the continent’s development and integration.
THE OBJECTIVES
- · To achieve greater unity and solidarity between African countries and the peoples of Africa;
- · To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of member states;
- · To accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent;
- · To promote and defend common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples;
- · To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
- · To promote peace, security and stability on the continent;
- · To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance;
- · To promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant human rights instruments;
- · To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations;
- · To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies;
- · To promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples;
- · To coordinate and harmonise policies between existing and future regional economic communities for the gradual attainment of the union’s objectives;
- · To advance development by promoting research in all fields, in particular science and technology;
- · To work with relevant international partners in eradicating preventable diseases and promoting good health on the continent.
YES, BUT…
Yes, these are all noble ideas but are they being achieved?
Yes, we changed the name of the Organisation of African Unity to the African Union in 2002.
But I might stubbornly insist that things have not changed. Africa is still far from being integrated and united.
African leaders have talked about African unity and a union government for the ‘United States of Africa’ since the formation of the OAU in 1963.
Thus Kwame Nkrumah’s urging for a union have been in vain.
Thus any serious discussion of the problems facing the integration or a unity agenda in Africa must involve restructuring the African reality itself.
This reality, however, can be complex, and re-sculpting it produces its own sets of blinkers and ideological predispositions.
These predispositions affect the way we see, describe and understand the problems that face post-colonial Africa, and its various projects whether at national, regional or continental levels.
Therefore integration and talk of unity essentially follows the same political trajectory that pertains at the national level of African countries themselves.
However, unless the national question is addressed first, we cannot hope to move on to higher ground – which is the regional level.
The example of the European Union (EU) is instructive.
There was no blanket admission to the union in Europe. Some countries were required to put their house in order before they could seek membership.
In Africa, however, any system goes.
AFRICAN ANSWERS?
Proceeding from that perspective, one can legitimately argue that as time elapses, as the post-colonial period lengthens, and as African societies rediscover their past, the significance of nationalist politics becomes less so.
We are witnessing it here in Namibia where identity politics (read tribal politics) is taking root.
If individual countries aren’t united internally how can they unite at regional and eventually continental level?
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We are also witnessing xenophobia in a number of African countries, especially South Africa. Thus pitting some African countries against each other.
Then we have Africans who are internally displaced in their own countries such as in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Do they have anything to celebrate on Monday?
What happened to African solutions for African problems and the silencing of guns talk?
The AU is widely derided as a bureaucratic ‘talk shop’ with little power. It’s struggled to enforce its decisions, and its lack of armed force has made intervention difficult.
The policy of non-interference in the affairs of member states has also limited the AU’s effectiveness.
Quo vadis the unity and integration agenda?
Africa’s reflection on its own future needs to focus on how to foster inclusive prosperity, equality, reduce the potential for violent confrontations and create conditions for peaceful co-existence.
This is the Africa we want if 25 May is to mean anything.
* Alexactus Kaure is a freelance writer and deconstructionist scholar.