Page 150 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

african union 35

African nationalism is meaningless, dangerous,
anachronistic, if it is not, at the same time, pan-
Africanism. • Julius K. Nyerere (1922–1999)

who met in London for the First Pan-African Congress in Nkrumah actively campaigned for this principle of
1900.The congress called for an end to colonial rule in African unity, believing it would be the best way to
Africa, citing its negative effects on Africans and pro- encourage an end to all vestiges of colonialism on the
claiming the need for all Africans—including those of continent. At a May 1963 meeting of African heads of
African descent outside the continent—to come together state in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nkrumah presented a for-
in support of a greater African social and political entity. mal plan to have all African nations join in the creation
This congress was followed by numerous expressions of such a union. By the end of the meeting, the more than
of similar ideas, including important statements by the thirty nations represented agreed to the creation of the
Gold Coast political activist Charles Casley-Hayford, as Organization of African Unity.
well as various organizational expressions, perhaps most
notably the Universal Negro Improvement Association Organization of
founded by the Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey in 1914. African Unity
Several international conferences promoting African sol- The OAU was in one measure a victory for the pan-
idarity followed, the first in 1919, coinciding with the Ver- African movement that had preceded it, especially in the
sailles Peace Conference at the end of World War I, arena of international efforts to remove all traces of colo-
followed by a series of others throughout the 1920s. By nialism in Africa. A nine-nation Liberation Committee
the 1930s, colonial governments in Africa grew deeply worked to promote independence for Africans continuing
suspicious of activities claiming pan-African connections, to live under colonialism and also to bring about major-
but the dynamics stimulating ideas of African unity grew ity rule for Africans living in South Africa. These efforts
more forceful with the onset of World War II. were a substantial part of the successful international
efforts that eventually led to the end of apartheid and to
African Independence a new South African government in the 1990s.
and Continental Unity But the price of this pan-African victory was a signifi-
Following World War II, many politically aware Africans cant limitation of the scope and power of the OAU as an
believed independence from colonial rule was certain, if effective international organization. The core of this
not imminent. Confirmation of this idea came first in dilemma was in the first principle enunciated in its char-
northern Africa, with Libya’s release from Italian control ter—“the sovereign equality of all member states”—which
in 1951; but perhaps the most significant development included a commitment to “non-interference in the inter-
was the creation of the new nation of Ghana, from the nal affairs” of any member state (African Union n.d.a). In
former British West African colony of Gold Coast, in practice, this limited what the OAU might achieve in pro-
1957. Some African leaders, especially Ghana’s first moting many of its other goals, including the protection
president, Kwame Nkrumah, saw this as a signal por- of the rights of Africans and the resolution of a number
tending the creation of a unified, independent continent: of destructive civil wars on the continent.
One expression of the frustration concerning these lim-
A union of African states will project more effectively the
itations was the complaint often voiced by Julius Nyerere,
African personality. It will command respect from a world
president of Tanzania, that the OAU was merely a sort of
that has regard only for size and influence....It will
trade union for African heads of state that allowed each
emerge not just as another world bloc to flaunt its wealth
of them a forum of international expression without any
and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is inde-
structible because it is built not on fear, envy, and suspi- questions about their own sometimes destructive policies.
cion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on Thus, rather than promoting any real unity, the OAU was
hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all seen at times to reinforce the unnatural divisions of the
mankind (Nkrumah 1961, xii). continent that had in fact been the legacy of colonial