From the Pan-Africanist Movement to the African Union Brief Historical Overview of Steps to African Unity

Abstract

Pan-Africanism has its pedigree, its advocates and its organizational achievements. This chapter attempts a modest review of some of the most significant milestones of the making of Africa, which was originally inspired by a visionary pan-African doctrine, advocated from time to time, by impatient proponents of unity. Some authors defined it as an ideology. Others said it was a political doctrine whose goal was the African Renaissance. Following the Addis Ababa summit, a Charter of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was adopted. They expressed the continuing differences as to the choice of continental organization and its powers. A compromise was finally found during the extraordinary summit of the Organization of African Unity held in Sirte (Libya), in September 1999, in the form of the Sirte Declaration establishing the African Union (9 September 1999).Keywords:Addis Ababa summit; African Union; Libya; Organization of African Unity (OAU); pan-African doctrine; Sirte Declaration