The African Union Ten Years After

This book looks at the first ten years of the African Union. This is the second in a series of books that will be produced each year from annual conferences held on the multi-faceted issue of African liberation. The key themes of the book explore ways of improving the effectiveness of the African Union, fostering unity amongst African countries through entrenchment of pan-Africanism, and building ownership of the African Union by the African people and their communities. In addition, the thoughts of key figures of pan-Africanism and black emancipation, such as Sylvester Williams and Frantz Fanon, are re-positioned to even greater contemporary relevance. Through its promotion of Ethiopianism, pan-Africanism and the African renaissance, we trust that this book will add new interest and a fresh perspective to how Africans move forward together into a post-colonial era where policies and actions are determined by the united agency of liberated Africans the world over.

This book looks at the first ten years of the African Union. This is the second in a series of books that will be produced each year from annual conferences held on the multi-faceted issue of African liberation. The key themes of the book explore ways of improving the effectiveness of the African Union, fostering unity amongst African countries through entrenchment of pan-Africanism, and building ownership of the African Union by the African people and their communities. In addition, the thoughts of key figures of pan-Africanism and black emancipation, such as Sylvester Williams and Franz Fanon, are re-positioned to even greater contemporary relevance. Through its promotion of Ethiopianism, pan-Africanism and the African renaissance, we trust that this book will add new interest and a fresh perspective to how Africans move forward together into a post-colonial era where policies and actions are determined by the united agency of liberated Africans the world over.

The book shows that integration is an intergovernmental process that involves the formation and pursuit of preferences, which are pursued through an aggregation of interests and institutions designed to maximize member states’ utility. It also shows how the African Union evolved and keeps evolving in terms of dealing with state sovereignty issues.

This book is an outcome of the third conference in the successful 'Scramble for Africa' International Conference series, now renamed the 'African Unity for Renaissance' International Conference. The book provides an overview and contains profound analyses of the important issues pertaining to African Unity and African Renaissance. The book is accessible to a wide variety of readers, ranging from policy makers to researchers, from teachers to students, and for anyone concerned with the further development of the African continent and Africa's renewal. The book outlines the various issues that animate Africa's stand in the global political, socio-economic, cultural and technological arenas. The chapters gathered in the book critically examine and evaluate the burning questions and challenges with which Africa is grappling. This book is one of the vital texts for understanding how Africa will manage to navigate the tumultuous waters of globalisation as Africa has just recently emerged out of the horrors of slavery, colonialism, apartheid, neo-colonialism and genocide, and is still wrestling with unceasing conflicts, popular unrest, neo-imperialism, coloniality and mushrooming insurgency. The chapters provide a much-needed insight into the issue of whether Africa has achieved genuine and meaningful independence after 50 years of the founding of the OAU and whether the baby-steps Africa has taken towards unity are worth celebrating. The contributors highlight these and allied issues with a view to capture more public attention in order to stimulate debate and usher in a new phase in the quest for African Unity and Renaissance. The contributors are distinguished authors and established and emerging scholars in their own domains. While a majority of the contributors are from the continent, distinguished scholars from around the globe have joined their African fellows in dealing with the relevant issues regarding Africa's place in an ever changing world.

This work is an introduction into the origins, law and institutions of the African Union (AU). It examines the evolution, structures, legal standards and operational activities of this Pan-African organization, which replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU) ten years ago.

The African Union has been a major factor in establishing peace, security and development in Africa. Today, however, the intranational body is struggling in the midst of a perceived dissipating appetite for supporting continental institutions. Previously seen as the panacea to Africa's continuing problems with violence and corruption in society, under the slogan "African Solutions to African Problems", the African Union, this book argues, seems to have run its course. Recognizing that the measured successes in political emancipation which have been recorded across the African continent do not seem to have translated into economic and social gains for its 1.2 billion citizens, the AU adopted a new development framework dubbed "Agenda 2063". The framework calls on African leaders to rediscover the `Pan African' spirit and to create the `Africa Africans want'. In practice this means a new focus and engagement with the African Diaspora, tapping into their strong track-record in economic development. As this book shows however, there remain deep differences over the meaning, timing and sequencing of pan-African integration. Indeed, different member states have different understandings of the role of the African Union itself. This essential handbook, from one of the leading research institutions on the continent, seeks to uncover what some of those understandings are and why the unification project has remained so elusive.