11. Choose an international organization that has not been mentioned and shortly describe its tasks and its structure. Write for whom this organization is important, and why.

12. You have been chosen as a spokesman of an agency promoting EU accession among eurosceptics. You will be talking to adults living in a small town. What arguments will you use? Write notes for a short speech, presenting arguments in at least three points. Do not write the whole speech, only the beginning and the ending, and leave the middle part in the form of clues or points.

Unit 3

From the Organization of African Unity to the African Union

Read the text and decide whether the sentences are true or false:

When the Organization of African Unity was founded in 1963, with headquarters in Ethiopia, it immediately aspired to be a multipurpose organization. Its fundamental aim was self-government and socioeconomic progress throughout Africa. But right at the outset, Africa’s political climate prevented the organization from becoming truly broad and strong. More than most other international bodies, the OAU was rooted in the Western- derived institutions of colonial rule and the perceived inferiority of African nations on what many in the West dismissed as the “dark continent”. To get Africa’s power back, the OAU founders’ driving vision was pan-Africanism, the idea that countries on the continent should unite. The vision had originated 150 years before in the United States: in 1816 the American Colonization Society for the Establishment of Free Men of Color was founded to repatriate freed slaves; in 1847 free slaves from the United States founded the West African nation Liberia. But the pan-African movement gathered momentum only toward the end of the nineteenth century. Its proponents called for dismantling the colonial system, especially the artificial state boundaries agreed upon at the 1885 Berlin Congress, which had deemed African unable to govern itself without European patronage.

After World War II, the demand for political, economic, and cultural self-determination became a flood that the colonial powers could not dam. March 6, 1957, the day of Ghana’s independence, marked a new dawn in Africa. But even after many African states achieved independence, the yoke of colonial rule was still fresh and painful memory for politicians and people of many African nations. Many newly installed African heads of state were unwilling to sign anything that might impinge on their new and jealously guarded sovereignty. Nonintervention was a prominent principle in the organization’s 1963 charter both in Article 3(2) and Article 8, and the OAU lacked supranational authority from the very start. Rather than a unifier of African nations, it became an intergovernmental old-boys network.

For regional organization, the OAU was to be unusually broad in purpose and functions. Its charter said that the OAU would “promote the unity and solidarity of the African States, coordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve better life for the peoples of Africa, [and] defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity and independence.” It would coordinate medical aid and health education programs, settle disputes between its members, and regulate the African arms trade.

But it hardly succeeded; and after the Cold War ended, the money spigot from the West and East dried up. By the late 1990s the OAU’s shortcomings had become obvious. On the initiative of none other than Libya’s ruler Muammar Qaddafi, who has much pull with African leaders because he liberally dispenses much-needed aid all cross Africa, OAU leaders issued the 1999 Sirte Declaration, calling for an African Union. They met several times over the next three years to detail their plans, and in 2002 the AU formerly came into existence. It now counts fifty-three members (the lone outsider is Morocco, which refused to join because of the admission of Western Sahara, which it claims as its own territory). Its mandates are many: to integrate the continent in political and socioeconomic matters (it called for the creation of a central development bank), provide a forum for conflict resolution that protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of African states, remove any remaining vestiges of colonialism, promote a common African position in world affairs, and last but not least, promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation, and good governance.

We saw that the EU, the AU’s role model, is a carefully crafted mix between intergovernmental safeguards for the sovereignty of member states, and supranational institutions to make and enforce common rules. The Consecutive Act of the AU includes strong language on AU decisions to penetrate the national boundaries of all member states. Its founders sought to give the AU more independence, allow more public participation, and have better overrule and monitoring procedures than the OAU ever did. These features make the AU a more effective, democratic, and autonomous organization – and not just on paper. The AU’s own peacekeeping forces now serve throughout the continent, and the AU may be ready to referee its own disputes. When the unpopular Liberian leader Charles Taylor left office, the president of Ghana, John Kofuor, was on hand in the Liberian capital to announce the terms for the dictator’s successor – an act of pan-African defiance of national sovereignty that would have never happened in OAU times. But it was the exception to the rule. The framers also gave the AU the mandate “to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States”, interim institutions remained intergovernmental, not supranational, to ease the transition.

It will become clear only with the time whether the AU remains mostly stuck in the intergovernmental reality of the OAU, or meets its supranational promise. Still, there are enough differences between OAU and AU to treat them as distinct organizations and rate each of them along the seven dimensions of transnational democracy.

1. The Organization of African Unity aspired to be pan- African organization.______

2. Africa’s political climate prevented the organization from becoming truly strong.______

3. The yoke of colonial rule disappeared after many African states achieved independence._____

4. Many African heads of state were reluctant to sign anything that might impinge on their new and jealously guarded sovereignty.______

5. Nonintervention was important principle in the organization’s 1963 charter._____

6. By 1990 the OAU’s shortcomings had become easily understood._____

7. The African Union was founded in 2002._____

8. Its mandate is to remove any remaining vestiges of colonialism._____

9. The founders of the AU sought to give the organization limited independence.____

10. There are enough differences between the Organization of African Unity and the African Union to treat them as distinct organizations._____

Choose the most suitable word(s) and fill in the gaps :

1. The fundamental aim of the Organization of African Unity was _________.

1. self government

2. political progress

3. economic growth

4. socio economic reforms

2. The day of ___________ independence marked a new dawn in Africa.

1. Senegal’s

2. The Gambia’s

3. Ghana’s

4. Egypt’s

3. For __________ organization, the OAU was to be unusually broad in purpose and functions.

1. international

2. supranational

3. regional

4. subregional

4. OAU leaders issued the 1999 ______________ Declaration, calling for an African Union.

1. Rome

2. Versailles

3. Dakar

4. Sirte

5. The AU’s own peacekeeping forces serve throughout the continent, and the AU may be ready to referee its own __________.

1. territories

2. disputes

3. achievements

4. institutions

Exercises and Tasks

13. Complete the text with the following words: dismantling, outset, movement, penetrates, broad, back, defend, demand, reality, rooted, momentum, member, vision, colonial, promote.

1. Right at the ___________, Africa’s political climate prevented the organization from becoming truly ______.

2. The OAU was ________ in the Western- derived institutions of _________ rule.

3. To get Africa’s power ________, the OAU founders’ driving ________ was pan- Africanism.

4. Pan- African __________ gathered _____________ only toward the end of the nineteenth century.

5. After World War II, the ___________ for political, economic self- determination became a flood that the colonial powers could not dam.

6. The Charter of the OAU said that it would __________ the unity and solidarity of the African States.

7. The Consecutive Act of the AU includes strong language on AU decisions to ___________ the national boundaries of all _________ states.

8. The framers gave the AU the mandate to ________ territorial integrity and independence.

9. It will become clear only with the time if the AU remains mostly stuck in the intergovernmental __________ of the OAU.

10. The proponents called for _____________ the colonial system.