The Growth and Development of the African Continent Between the Member Countries - Research Paper Example

Introduction The African Union (AU), is an organization consisting of 53 African countries. It was established in 2002 as a successor to Organization of African Unity (OAU). The major objective of this cooperation is for the growth and development of African continent through social, economical, political and cultural cooperation between the member countries. African countries are generally believed as some of the most underdeveloped countries in the world because of so many political and social factors. Majority of the African states don’t have a well developed or defined political structure even now. Most of these states were ruled by dictators earlier who destroyed the economy of the country by looting the resources. African states realized that it was difficult for them to progress with individual efforts. They have realized that collective efforts are needed for them to streamline their economies in the growth path. Moreover, the bargaining power of a group of nations would be more than that of an individual nation. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is one best example for the improved bargaining power of a consortium than an individual country. African countries have realized the above fact little later and they formed the AU in 2002. This paper briefly explains the background of the African Unity, its current goals and structures and the globalization challenges to the AU The Historical background of the African Unity (OAU) The Organization of African Unity was established in 1963 in Addis Abeba (Organization of African Unity).OAU was formed in order to promote unity and solidarity among African states. The life of the African people was miserable earlier and many elements both internal and external have exploited the weakness of the African people for their own advantages. Dictators from the African continent and intruders from other parts of the world; all equally exploited the African people for their own selfish gains. OAU was formed to eliminate such anti-African elements form the African soil and to keep the sovereignty of each African country. Colonialism and human right violations were some of the big curses for Africa earlier and the formation of OAU was aimed at eradicating all such unhealthy elements form the African society. Boundary conflicts between countries were other major barriers for the economic development of the African countries. These boundary problems often resulted in fierce battle between them which was exploited by the westerners. Apartheid or segregation of people based on the colour of the skin was another major hurdle to overcome for the economic development. Moreover the African culture was also on the verge of destruction because of the above internal social and political problems. Infrastructure development and developments in Education, Science, Health etc were very poor in African countries because lack of resources and internal problems. OAU was formed in order to address the above issues collectively. OAU was formed on the principle of mutual cooperation among African nations. As per the rules and regulations of the OAU, all the member countries were asked to stay away from the internal matters of other countries. The above principle backfired in the 70’s when severe human right violations happened in Uganda under the Idi Amin regime. Many people criticized the functioning of OAU because of their inability to interfere in critical matters. Critics blame OAU as a dictators club since many of the OAU member countries were ruled by dictators. At the same time people like former UN secretary General Kofi Anan has praised OAU for bringing a sense of unity among African countries. Moreover OAU was successful in fighting against colonialism up to certain extent. Among the 13 African conflicts have been addressed by the OAU, but, only five out of them have led to the deployment of some type of OAU peacekeeping operation. These are: (1) Rwanda in August-October 1993; (2) Burundi in December 1993 - July 1996; (3) Comoros in August 1998 – (redeployment still possible); (4) Congo DR from November 1999 to date; and (5) Ethiopia-Eritrea from October 2000 to date (ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY (OAU)/AFRICAN UNION, p.10). In other words, OAU was a failure in achieving its objectives in majority of the conflicts happened between the member countries which forced them to think in terms of looking for other options. The requirement of a more comprehensive cooperation was understood by all the member countries which resulted in the formation of African Union (AU) in 2002. The African Union Today: Goals and Structures The current African Union is divided into four segments based on the regions of operation; central, western, eastern, southern and northern. Western Africa consists of 16 members, Eastern 13, Northern 5, Southern 10 and central 9 members. The objective so the African Union were well defined and more comprehensive compared to that of the earlier OAU. Apart from achieving unity and solidarity among African countries, Defending the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States; Accelerating the political and socio-economic integration; Promoting and defending Africa’s common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples; Encouraging international cooperation, Promoting peace, security, and stability on the continent; Promoting democratic principles and institutions; Promoting good governance; Promoting and protecting human rights etc are some of the aims of the AU (ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY (OAU)/AFRICAN UNION, p.2-4). The current African Union is functioning more effectively than its predecessor OAU. For example the new administration of Madagascar has not been approved by the AU. In fact AU has taken the decision to suspend Madagascar from the AU membership. “The peace and security council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has proclaimed that the process leading to the assumption of power by opposition leader Andry Rajoelina in Madagascar was unconstitutional and therefore has decided to suspended Madagascar’s membership from the organisation”(African Union Monitor). Africa is a continent infamous for all sorts of tricks and corruptions prevailing in politics. Politicians make use of the illiterate African people’s inability to protest against the political corruption and looting of African wealth. The above decision underlines the commitment of AU in fulfilling their ambitions to clean up the malicious African politics. The controversial Libyan leader Mouammar Kadhafi, currently the chairman of AU, is making every effort to strengthen the AU. He has asked every regional African union like the central, east, south, west and north to strengthen their regions and their cooperation o that the net results would be beneficial to the AU as a whole. The African Union and the Globalization challenges Globalization has opened ways opened the doors of possibilities widely to all the nations irrespective of developing, developed or underdeveloped. African countries are generally poor countries with lack of natural resources. Even the available resources were not utilized by them because of political problems and infrastructure shortages. Most of the MNC’s are in a state of saturation in their domestic countries and they are looking for opportunities in other potential regions. African countries have lot of options in exploiting such opportunities if they formulate the right strategies. Globalization has increased the importance of AU in collectively making an effort to exploit the possibilities. African resources were not mobilized properly because of lack of technology and infrastructure facilities. Globalization has brought an opportunity for the African countries to welcome foreign direct investments (FDI) for the utilization of such resources fro the mutual benefits. For example, India is currently trying to establish comprehensive economic cooperation agreements with the Common Market of Southern Africa and the East African Community (EAC) (African Union Monitor). India’s relationships with Africa has historical importance since their father of nation, MK Gandhi has participated in the independence struggle in Africa. Globalization is all about political social and economical cooperation between countries or regions. Africa is a continent which realized the need of globalization much earlier than other parts of the world. Ogonor et al (2009) have mentioned that social and economical globalization has taken place in Africa much earlier than the political globalization (Ogonor et al, p.761). Africa was reluctant in implementing political reforms earlier because of the selfish interests of some totalitarian political leaders. These leaders earlier stressed the importance of social and economical tie ups while keeping a blind eye towards the reforms in politics. Their attitude towards democracy and democratization was not so good earlier which prevented the African countries from exploiting the globalization opportunities fully. The Togo case is one of the best examples for the above attitude of African leaders. When Gnassingbe Eyademaseized power in 1967, it was the era of the Big Man on Africa. Like many African leaders of his generation, Eyadema ruthlessly crushed opposition forces, nurtured a cult of personality, and then clung to power decade after decade, growing rich as his tiny West African nation stayed poor (Ogonor et al, p.762). The major obstacle in exploiting the possibilities offered by globalization in Africa is the political problems. Moreover human right violations issues are also a concerning factor. In a region which is infamous for people like Idi Amen who reportedly a fan of meat of human, it is difficult to make the people civilized in the recent future. Moreover majority of the African people are illiterate which is another major challenge for globalization. Only a civilized, politically stable community can exploit the possibilities of globalization and African region lacks it. The efforts of African Union are of very much important for the member countries to exploit the offers put forward to them by the globalization. Conclusions African continent is one of the weakest and poorest regions in the world. Most of the countries were ruled by dictators and they utilized the illiteracy of people to exploit the wealth of Africa and to execute their hidden agendas to stay in power as much as possible. Organization of African Union (OAU) was formed in the 1960’s in order to increase the bargaining power of the African region and to improve the political, economical and social conditions in Africa. Even though OAU was successful in bringing certain minor changes in African politics, it was not successful enough to tackle the much complicated political and economical problems in Africa. The inability of OAU in solving the problems in Africa has made the leaders aware of a more comprehensive cooperation which leads to the formation of AU with 53 member countries. Even though AU was also not succeeded yet in eradicating political and economical problems in Africa, it succeeded in bringing drastic changes in the African social and political spectrum. The expulsion of Madagascar from AU is an example for that. Globalization has offered lot of opportunities to African countries; but most of them were unable to capitalize on that yet. Africa has many mile to travel before it reaches the levels of other continents and AU has a significant role in raising Africa to the global standards. Works Cited 1. “African Union Monitor”. 05 January 2010. 2. “Organization of African Unity”. 05 January 2010. 3. “ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY (OAU)/AFRICAN UNION”. OAU Profile. 05 January 2010. 4. Ogonor Mac, Eke paul and Nte Ngboawaji D. 2009. “The challenge of globalization and democratization to theAfrican Union: The case of Togo Crisis. International Journal of Human sciences. Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Year: 2009. Read More