| Chapter 1: | Introduction: Transition, Continuity, and Change |
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Continuity in Change: OAU to AU
The compromise that was negotiated in the immediate postindependence era from the divergent positions was the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) formed in 1963. OAU was a statist intergovernmental organization with an overarching mandate for the liberation of the continent. By 1999, the processes had begun for the winding down of the OAU. The 1999 Extraordinary Summit (Sirte) of the OAU decided to establish the African Union (AU). The Lomé Summit of 2000 adopted the Constitutive Act of the African Union. The Lusaka Summit of 2001 fledged out the roadmap for its actualization, while the new organization was born at the Durban Summit of 2002, when the heads of state and governments of the OAU launched the new organization.
In some quarters, the OAU was regarded as a “club of dictators,” where the leadership manipulated the principle of national sovereignty to perpetuate political tyranny and dictatorship in their respective countries, but it would also be fair to argue that the OAU achieved its primary objective of the total liberation of the African continent. The formation of the AU was intended to correct the perceived inadequacies of the OAU and move the regional integration agenda in a new direction after the independence of African states.
The attention shifted to a “second layer” priority in the regional agenda, namely, evolving and institutionalizing norms and standards of democracy, human rights, and rule of law, as well as fast-tracking the course of economic development of the continent. The AU was a leap forward in Africa’s integration process in several important respects. Conceptually, whereas anticolonialism and the securing of national sovereignty were the ideological background of the OAU, the AU is conceived as a transnational organization heading toward political, economic, and social integration (Udombana, 2002, p. 74). Also, from a principle of noninterference of the OAU, the AU emphasizes the principle of nonindifference of a limited nature. The AU Charter envisaged collective security as opposed to regime security of the OAU, and it projects a people-driven, or at least a people-friendly, union instead of a leader-centric OAU. Finally, it emphasizes the coordination of African responses to global developments and the building of African consensus on key issues of trade, commerce, and diplomacy (Abdul-Raheem, 2007).
The marked difference between the OAU and AU in terms of objectives, processes, and institutional mechanisms is captured in figure 1.1.