This weekend in Addis Ababa, African leaders celebrate 50 years since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity. They will debate how to achieve the pan-African ideal of continental integration. Some argue for cutting tariffs, ending constraints on the movement of capital and labour to create an African economic community. Others echo Ghana’s founding President Kwame Nkrumah: ‘Seek ye first the political k...
This weekend in Addis Ababa, African leaders celebrate 50 years since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity. They will debate how to achieve the pan-African ideal of continental integration. Some argue for cutting tariffs, ending constraints on the movement of capital and labour to create an African economic community. Others echo Ghana’s founding President Kwame Nkrumah: ‘Seek ye first the political kingdom’ – that only determined leadership can end Africa’s balkanisation and give its economies scale and coherence.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairwoman of the AU Commission, wants the summit to produce a plan for integration, with the leaders of the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Donald Kaberuka and Carlos Lopes.
Other pressures point Africa in the opposite direction although its new states have not been a compelling success. Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia and then the two countries went to war in 1999. Today, Eritrea is a closed, isolated society. After high hopes at independence in July 2011, South Sudan has continued battling with Khartoum over borders, politics and oil. Yet many others seek independence: Somaliland, Azawad, Western Sahara, Casamance and more.
The desperate need this weekend is to find government structures that can foster integrated economies but can also allow devolution of power to the many disenchanted communities.
