Africa in The Twentieth Century
The
Organisation of African Unity
| GRADE LEVEL | THEME | TOPIC | DURATION |
| 12 | WORLD HISTORY | AFRICA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY | x LESSONS |
Africa in The Twentieth Century |
Achievements Without any experience, the OAU faced major difficulties. Despite these, it accomplished significant achievements. The organisation formed a united front at the United Nations (UN). The 41 OAU members exercised a strong influence on the General Assembly and ensured that there was African representation on UN structures. The OAU was able to provide independence movements with moral and other support including weapons, military training and international political pressure on the colonial rulers through its lobbying of the UN to grant observer status to these groups. Groups included Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) in Zimbabwe, South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) and the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in South Africa. The OAU did much to isolate apartheid South Africa by mobilising international condemnation of the National Party government and African support for the resistance struggle in South Africa. The organisation was able to settle border disputes between member countries,
such as those between Algeria and Morocco, and Somalia and Ethiopia. Weaknesses The unity of the OAU was threatened by the formation of regional groupings among the member countries. These include the Afro-Malagasy Union of former French colonies that were economically dependent on France, and the Arab league, to which many North African countries belong. From the very beginning there were differences of opinion between the Casablanca bloc, that was pro-communist and the conservative Monrovia bloc, that favoured capitalism. The OAU was run by the rulers of member countries, some of whom not only did not represent the views of their people, as they were self appointed, but were also themselves involved in human rights violations. As the organisation had no legal means of enforcing its decisions it was accused of being a talk shop, incapable of ensuring implementation of plans and decisions. In its failure to address the human rights abuses on the continent, the OAU was accused of contributing indirectly to violence. This was most clearly displayed in the organisation's failure to stop the rampage of Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin. Idi Amin
On July 11, 2000, the OAU adopted the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU Act) to replace the OAU Charter and establish the African Union (AU). This came into force on May 26, 2001. The OAU was formally dissolved on July 9, 2002, during the 38th session of the OAU Assembly in Durban, South Africa. The AU was then formally launched and met over the next two days. The AU leaders re-dedicated themselves "more resolutely" to the principles and objectives of the OAU "and to the ideals of freedom, unity and development which the founding leaders sought to achieve in establishing the Organization." South Africa has played a key role in the establishment of and participation within the new AU. Click here to see a paper on the position of the AU: Bujra, A. (2003). ‘From the OAU to the AU; Visions of African Development from the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) to NEPAD’ In recent years there has been talk of the need to support an African Renaissance led by South African President Thabo Mbeki and other African leaders. This idea has evolved to strategies and plans to build African unity and self-reliance in the establishment of a continent wide body called the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Its leaders want to see that all the debts Africa incurred from European countries are written off. In a sense NEPAD calls for Africa to be sustainable and take its rightful place in the global market. Learning outcome: Learners will be expected to demonstrate an ability to work independently, formulating enquiry questions and gathering, analysing, interpreting and evaluating relevant evidence to answer questions.
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