ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Dozens of African leaders met in the Ethiopian capital yesterday to mark 50 years since the founding of the African Union, a continent-wide organization that helped liberate Africa from colonial masters and which now is trying to stay relevant on a continent regularly troubled by conflict.
Opening the summit that was attended by US Secretary of State John Kerry and other foreign dignitaries, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said the AU’s original pan-Africanist aspirations remain relevant for a continent where many states are still struggling to overcome rampant poverty and violence.
“This historic day marks not only a great leap forward in the Pan-Africanist quest for freedom, independence and unity but also the beginning of our collective endeavor for the realizations of Africa’s socio-economic emancipation,” he said. “The major responsibility of the current and future generations of Africans is to create a continent free from poverty and conflict and an Africa whose citizens would enjoy middle- income status.”
AU chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the pan-Africanism championed by the organization “united and inspired our people across the continent and globe never to accept oppression.”
Founded in May 1963 by a handful of liberated African nations, the Organization of African Unity — as it was known then — was at the time preoccupied with ending apartheid in South Africa and colonialism across the continent. Now the AU is focused on Agenda 2063, a blueprint that officials here say will eventually lead to the political and economic integration of Africa. African leaders are expected to discuss this 50-year strategic plan during the summit.
By the 1970s, after almost all of Africa had been liberated from colonialism, the Organization of African Unity set its sights on ending white racist rule in South Africa. The organization granted the African National Congress — the party of Nelson Mandela that has governed South Africa since 1994 — observer status at a time when it was still outlawed by South Africa’s apartheid regime.
President Jacob Zuma of South Africa praised the AU in a statement yesterday, saying the organization was a force for freedom and the economic emancipation of all African people.
“The (Organization of African Unity) therefore created a mechanism for the African intelligentsia and those at the forefront of the struggle against colonialism to coordinate and intensify their cooperation to emancipate the continent from colonial subjugation,” the statement said. “The OAU thus provided a sense of purpose for the African people to restore their freedom, dignity and to strive for a better life for all Africans.”
