Abstract
Ever since the colonial era, attempts have been made throughout the various regions of Africa at building supranational units chiefly for administrative and legal convenience. Examples of such attempts include the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the East African High Commission and the federations in former French West and Equatorial Africa, all of which were attempts at forging a supranational nation state. These experiments laid the foundation for further supranational initiatives in post-colonial Africa. In this respect, every region in Africa has either experimented with or is currently experimenting with the idea of supranational regional organisations. This article aims at investigating selected attempts at supranationalism on the continent, the successes and failures of such experiments, and the lessons to be learnt from them. As Africa embarks on the journey of solidifying its unity through the establishment of leviathan continental institutions, efforts should be geared towards building on the experiences of past and present experiments at the sub-regional level. Such experiments offer instructive lessons as they are rooted in similar historical and social contexts.KEYWORDS: Supranationalism; African integration; East African Community; Southern Africa Customs Union; Economic Community of West African States; OHADA; West African Economic and Monetary Union; Central African Economic and Monetary Community
Highlights
Ever since the colonial era, attempts have been made, throughout the various regions of Africa, at building supranational units for both administrative and legal convenience
Emblems of supranationalism remain prominent at the sub-regional levels: the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Organisation for Harmonisation in Africa of Business Laws (OHADA)
Article 9 of the EAC Treaty outlines the following as the institutions of the community: the Summit, the Council, the East African Court of Justice, the East African Legislative Assembly, the Secretariat, the Sectoral Committees and the Coordination Committees.[67]
Summary
Ever since the colonial era, attempts have been made, throughout the various regions of Africa, at building supranational units for both administrative and legal convenience Examples of such attempts include the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the East African High Commission and the Federations in former French West and Equatorial Africa, all of which were attempts at forging a supranational nation state. Emblems of supranationalism remain prominent at the sub-regional levels: the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Organisation for Harmonisation in Africa of Business Laws (OHADA) It is against this background that this article aims at investigating selected attempts at supranationalism on the continent, the successes and failures of such experiments, and the lessons to be learnt from them. It concludes by discussing some of the common challenges, as evident in the foregoing analysis, facing (supranational) integration in Africa
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