The United States of Africa agenda: From wishful thinking to ephemeral renaissance? (original) (raw)

Pan-Africanism in the 21st century: African union and the challenges of cooperation and integration in Africa

Brazilian Journal of International Relations, 2021

The paper examines the extent to which Pan-Africanism and Pan-African vision of promoting African unity, cooperation and integration has been achieved under the African Union (AU) in the 21st century. It also assesses the challenges of cooperation and integration under the AU. The paper adopted a qualitative approach, while data was gathered from secondary sources and analysed thematically. It notes that the quest for African cooperation and integration is not new, but dates back to philosophy and vision of Pan-Africanism and Pan-African movement from the 1950s and 1960s. This movement later took roots in the continent and championed the struggle of Africans and peoples of African descent for emancipation and the restoration of their dignity, against slavery, colonialism and all forms of racism and racial exploitation, and to overcome developmental challenges. After independence, the Pan-African movement found concrete expression in the establishment of the Organization of Africa Un...

The 13th Ordinary Session of the African Union and the Question of a United States of Africa

ai.org.za

This paper examines the decision to transform the African Union Commission into the African Union Authority as an important step towards continental political unifi cation by 2015. Important developments leading towards continental political integration are highlighted and the rationale or reasons often advanced in favour of political unifi cation are critically assessed. The conclusion drawn is that the desire for continental political unifi cation may be good and ambitious, but conditions necessary for its actualisation in the near future are seriously lacking. The approach towards continental unifi cation is therefore faulted as illogical. In place of continental political unifi cation, a call for the strengthening of regional economic communities as a viable policy alternative is made.

The African Union and the Destiny of Africahood: The Southern Africa Development Community and Neo-colonial Challenges to Pan-Africanism

African Journal of International Affairs, 2010

Introductory keynotes "Only a united Africa can redeem its past glory, renew and reinforce its strength for the realization of its destiny. We are today the richest and yet the poorest of continents, but in unity our continent could smile in a new era of prosperity and power", Kwame Nkrumah, President of the first independent Sub-Saharan African State of Ghana 1957. Abraham Knife, Challenges and prospects of Pan-African Economic Integration. (http//:eiipd.org/publications/occasional%20papers/ pan_african_eco_integration.htm). 23 October 2003. "To dominate a people is, above all, to take up arms to destroy, or at least to neutralize, to paralyze, its cultural life. For, with a strong indigenous cultural life, foreign domination cannot be sure of its perpetuation. The value of culture as an element of resistance to foreign domination lies in the fact that culture is the vigorous manifestation on the ideological or idealist plane of the physical and historical reality of the society that is dominated or to be dominated. Culture is simultaneously the fruit of a people`s history and a determinant of history, by the positive and negative influence which it exerts on the evolution of relationships between man and his environment, among men or groups of men within a society, as well as among different societies", Amilcar Cabral, the late President of the Republic of Guinnea-Bissau.Centre of Pan African Culture.

The African Union in the 21st Century: Reinventing a Pan-African Organisation Undergirding its Core Mission The African Union Summit 36th Ordinary Session

The vision of the founding fathers of African Unity was to promote unity and solidarity, rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonisation and apartheid, coordinate and intensify cooperation for development, safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity and pro-mote international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations. Participants in the complex traffic web of African futures could be torn between professional caution and the genuine desire for a better future. Such loft visions as African Unity, notwithstanding, repeat-ed attempts to dispel the prevailing gloom by pointing to the bright spots of the African past and calls for the fostering those cultural resources to check the overall drift towards ‘fragmen-tation’ have not yielded to popular aspirations. This raises the fundamental question of what do we mean by African integration in the first place and does African integration has indigenous roots. Lurking in the background of all these questions is the rather disturbing one: is perhaps all this talk of African unification and development an academic or a public relations exercise? If African leaders want an AU that is relevant to the ordinary Africans, the next term of office must be a ‘term of implemen-tation” not another term of norm-setting”. The African Renaissance will very much depend on free expression of diverse ideas and beliefs, emergence of supportive set of rules and political institutions and financing peace in Africa. Ultimately, the Constitutive Act of the African Union must migrate from “We, Heads of State and Government of the Member States” to, “We the People of the African Union”. The 2023 theme The African Union theme of the year 2023 is “The Year of AfCFTA: Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area Implementation” is timely and apposite. The paper discusses the options and scenarios that Africa has in order to promote African trade and integration Key words: Africa Union, AfCFTA, Integration, Peace, Security, Trade, Development

United States of Africa and the Conundrums

Unity is an essential ingredient for Africa's progress; a necessity if the continent is to develop. Pro-unity African leaders and scholars believe that Africa's backwardness is tied to its disintegration at the 1884 Berlin Conference in Germany. This school of thought has under different dais, voted for a unified and visa-free Africa, holding that when the 54 African states undo the arbitrary colonial borders and its attendant consequences, Africa will reconnect self with natural strength, destiny, and will succeed. Another school of thought holds that the African Union and African Heads of States are two sources of Africa's problem. Through a review of literature, this paper finds that the conundrum behind achieving the United States of Africa (USA) is not connected to bad policy per se but poor implementation. The paper concludes that Africa should unite through regional economic organisations.

The question of pan-Africanism and the problem of United States of Africa in Nigeria : lessons for other African countries

Journal of African Foreign Affairs

African unity and development have, for a very long time, been paramount to African leaders, both living and dead. As a result of this, the necessity for Africa to unite has been expressed on several occasions by Africa's political leadership and intellectuals. The past few years in particular have witnessed many efforts to address Africa's vast developmental, socioeconomic, peace and security, and governance challenges. However, there is no unanimity amongst Africa's political leadership and policy intellectuals on the pathway to be followed for the realisation of this political and economic agenda. Whereas some countries have dissipated a lot of energy and resources towards this continental project, Nigeria's effort is yet to be forthcoming. While some countries like Nigeria favour incremental regional integration, others believe in a revolutionary approach. In the case of Nigeria, the argument is that the critical challenges facing the implementation of pan-Africanism and the United States of Africa (USAf) as development agenda are numerous. In explaining this, the point of

Debating the African unity debate : interrogating six decades of converging and diverging dynamics towards continental unification

2021

Abstract: This dissertation has made an attempt to interrogate the centripetal and centrifugal forces imbedded in African unity, which spans six decades and more. This study used the ideology of Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance alongside the theories of regional integration to examine how the debates on the quest for African unity have evolved over a period of sixty years. The author divided the evolution of the quest for African unity into three phases: the first phase involves the early 1900s, which was marked by the formation of the Pan-African Congresses, however, this was to set a background history of Africa’s quest for unity. It further maintained that the transplantation of Pan-Africanism from the African diaspora to Africa represented the first phase, which came to an end when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was established in 1963 ushering in the second phase in the quest for African unity. The transformation of the OAU into the African Union (AU) in 2002 mar...

The African Union, the Transformation and Challenges of a Continent

Public Policy and Administration Research, 2014

The establishment of the African Union was noteworthy in the way it undermined the authoritarian theory and practice of its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity. The justification was based on the right of peaceful coexistence of member states and-as a consequence-the right of member states to request intervention from the Union in order to restore peace and security. The African Union's Constitutive Act introduced an array of responsibilities, powers, and rules that challenged the premises of Africa's earlier leaders. The Act established how the Union would carry out its business through a network of organs, agencies, government ministries, and NGOs, which this paper examines in some detail. While the organizational structure attempted to balance national and continental concerns, it also revealed an obvious weakness in the power of its three principal parliamentary, administrative and legal bodies. Although AU has made great strides in building an institution committed to human security and development, there is need to sharpen its focus, and bring about more specificity in organizational goals. The dual missions of a movement championing the independence of sovereign African states and simultaneously creating a homeland for all of African descent were, if not contradictory, at least so divergent as to strain the ability of its leaders to ensure a lasting consensus. While the initial vision was a powerful one and attracted a group of true believers, the complexities of a modern global economy have demanded an array of new developmental strategies to meet this challenge. The challenges include but not limited to good governance in Africa, alleviation of poverty and hunger, as well as hindrances to citizen participation, especially women, in civic and state affairs.