Editorial commentary : African Union and the quest for a new Africa

Abstract

The African Union, which succeeded the Organisation of African Unity on July 9 2002, is often criticised for being largely a talk shop that has not markedly succeeded in either forging African unity or creating a sustainable roadmap for its political and economic development aspirations (Davis, 2019; Okhonmina, 2009) . In fact when in 1999, the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) issued the Sirte Declaration calling for the establishment of the African Union, some critics saw it as more of a "bleaching complex" in which African Heads of States felt they would be more accepted by world leaders if their continental organisations sounded like the European Union and modelled after it (Trivedi, 2003) - but obviously without bothering whether a mere change in name would automatically imbue the new organisation with the sort of organic arrangements that helped to bind the members of the European Union together. Assessments such as the above however appear to be either too hasty or a reflection of the afro-pessimism that sometimes leads to self-doubt, self hate and even a failure to recognize the modest gains being achieved.