Africa has a rich history of political projects for the unity of the continent. The most famous and influential of these was the Pan-Africanism of President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Nkrumah insisted that Africa must unite, and that the independence of Ghana was meaningless without the liberation and unification of the entire continent. Many other African leaders from the independence generation shared these views, though some of them took a more incrementalist approach to unification, for example Julius Nyerere. At that time, there was remarkable coherence of political vision across the continent and a strong sense of idealism.
Africa’s unity was a casualty of Cold War politics. The Pan Africanist ‘Casablanca Group’ brought together the radical, leftist nationalist leaders. Meanwhile the more conservative and pro-Western Monrovia Group advocated independence within existing boundaries. The Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie was one of the most influential leaders of the latter group. His conservatism was moderated by his strong commitment to multilateralism and collective security (he had been a victim of the abrogation of these principles by the League of Nations in 1935), and his active support to national liberation movements across the continent. The outcome was the OAU, which was a compromise that managed to maintain the diplomatic unity of the continent and prevent Africa splitting into two rival camps. This was a considerable achievement at the height of the Cold War. Meanwhile, the Africa Liberation Committee was set up by the OAU in Dar es Salaam to promote Pan-African cooperation in the liberation of countries still under colonial or racist domination.
The existence of a common external political threat was a powerful impulse towards regionalism in both Europe and East Asia. In Southern Africa, the common threat of Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and ‘80s pushed the independent countries towards economic and political cooperation, notably in the creation of SADCC. But with the advent of democracy in South Africa, no such threat exists. Threats to the security and stability of the African continent come largely from within. Moreover threats are often associated with poor governance rather than attempts to destabilize effective governments.
Contemporary Pan Africanism is seeking a clear political vision. There is a high level of political demoralization across the continent and a clear lack of confidence in political institutions and political leaders. On the other hand, there is a strong sense of common identity across Africa. The OAU is one of the few regional organizations in the world that manages to hold annual summits and regular meetings; ambassadors to the OAU are kept busy; there is a growing body of African charters and conventions, and a small but increasingly confident African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. African leaders like to meet together. The idea of Africa and African common interest still resonates strongly.
The African Union is a state-led process. To date it has had relatively little input from either civil society or from the private sector. The Constitutive Act of the African Union contains a number of provisions that can ensure much greater participation by these stakeholders.
In summary, there is everything to play for in the African Union. There are formidable obstacles and many reasons for caution, but also tremendous opportunities.
3.1 Economic Integration
At independence, many African states were financially and economically integrated, and some shared subregional political institutions. This was particularly so for the Franc Zone in west Africa, the East African Community and the Central African Federation. However these associations rapidly fell apart, or, in the case of the Franc Zone, failed to develop. Following the adoption of the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action that announced a pan-African programme of economic cooperation and integration, a new start seemed to have been made.
Africa has multiple regional cooperation and integration initiatives and programmes. They vary from customs unions to more ambitious monetary unions, and the deepening East African Cooperation that also entails a subregional parliament and other institutions. Many of these organizations and associations overlap in manner that demands greater coordination. West Africa in particular has been marked by the proliferation of overlapping subregional economic integration organizations. COMESA is Africa’s widest economic integration project, which has marked both successes and disappointments in promoting intra-regional trade, lowering tariff barriers and harmonising customs regimes.
Africa has also engaged in extra-regional economic cooperation projects. Most former French colonies have had preferential trade relationships with France, which for some time retained a hegemonic role in ensuring monetary stability. African countries are members of the Commonwealth and the League of Arab States, and some have special relationships with the EU. However, these mostly count as special aid relationships or economic cooperation arrangements rather than economic integration as such.
In contrast to the EU, NAFTA and APEC, Africa’s attempts at regional economic integration have so far failed to realize substantial increases in intra-regional trade. African countries started off with lower levels of intra-regional trade and the situation has largely failed to improve. This is probably related to (a) the very low income of the African region, and (b) the high proportion of GDP represented by agriculture and the low level of industrialization. Other problems will also be mentioned below.
3.2 Sub-Regionalism and the Question of Diversity
Most of Africa’s functioning inter-state organizations are sub-regional rather than regional. These have evolved since the formation of the OAU in response to specific needs and requirements of member states. There has not however been any attempt to establish formal liaison mechanism among them and between them and the continental organisations. Nor has there been any systematic analysis of how subregional organisations could themselves evolve into a regional association or organisation.
The East African Cooperation is a promising model for subregionalism in Africa. It is an incremental process that involves gradually deepening economic and institutional ties, with parliamentary structures to help it command popular legitimacy. Increased subregional trade and improved economic growth have been the fundamental aims of the cooperation agreements. Ultimately, the new EAC will stand or fall on the success of economic cooperation in delivering tangible benefits.
The question of hegemony arises with respect to all regional and subregional organisations. Historically, dominance by one state has been either the key factor in ensuring the success of a regional organisation, or has had the opposite effect of undermining it. This depends on how the dominant state and its neighbours handle their political interests and actions.
We can schematize different responses to hegemony:
- First, smaller states may seek to contain the hegemon within a wider system, thus diluting its power and obliging it to act according to a set of wider rules. The dominant power thus becomes the core of regional system. An example is the EU with respect to Germany.
- Second, smaller states may align with a dominant power in order to obtain some of the benefits of its hegemonic status, including security protection and/or economic bandwagoning.
- Third, the dominant power may itself see a wider coalition as a means of sharing the burden of its role, distributing the economic, military and diplomatic costs among other members of the community.
- Finally, smaller states may mobilise an alliance to provide a counter-force to the hegemonic threat. In this case the dominant power is outside the regional organization. Such a strategy also requires a long-term strategy for defusing that threat.
In Africa’s subregions, the way in which smaller states respond to the subregional dominance of South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt, and the strategies adopted by these relatively powerful states, have major implications for the way in which subregional and regional organizations can be constructed.
Where no dominant power exists, the creation of regional associations is more problematic. In the case of both Europe and East Asia, the Cold War was a crucial context: U.S. strategic interest in the two regions meant that the security communities could be nurtured against the backdrop of the U.S. as an outside protector. But where no such strategic superpower interest exists, it may be necessary to fall back upon the old European idea of the ‘balance of power.’ This operated effectively in Europe for much of the 19th century, when the European monarchies decided it would be more effective to use their military capacities mostly for internal repression rather than inter-state warfare. Over the whole of the African continent, this is the general pattern.
The African Union has adopted the historically unprecedented approach, of incorporating all the states on the continent at one time, rather than basing its regionalism on a core or hegemonic state or states.
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