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Features
Celebrating Tajudeen, the OAU and AU: which way Africa?
Ama Biney (2013-05-23)
cc O OThis special issue celebrates not only 50 years of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its successor, the African Union (AU), but also the life of the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a staunch Pan-Africanist. Some of the themes of this issue are set out, as well as future challenges facing the AU and Pan-Africanists
State of the Union
Dlamini Zuma (2013-05-23)
cc L F Address by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Dr. Dlamini Zuma to the Third Pan African Parliament
6 May 2013
The African Union speaks about the 50th anniversary
Aulbrie Sass (2013-05-23)
cc WikiPambazuka News interviewed various officials of the AU Commission and an Oxfam official about the accomplishments of the AU as well as some of the challenges and future of continental integration. Follow the links below to listen to the interviews:
Deputy Chairperson, H.E. Mr. Erastus Mwencha
http://youtu.be/W7Ag1CWzpyo
Commissioner for Social Affairs, H.E. Dr. Mustapha S. Kaloko
http://youtu.be/Ipfzeuh6MyA
Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, H.E. Mrs. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace
http://youtu.be/_f2JD0FMjDs
Deputy Head of Communication and Information, Wynne Musabayana
http://youtu.be/7jhgHnumUpY
Oxfam International, Head of Office, Desire Assogbavi
http://youtu.be/kJFndQ6cJ5M
* The interviews were coordinated by Jeff DeKock, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts, Trinity Christian College, and Coordinator of the Semester in Kenya
The Organization of African Unity (OAU)/African Union at 50
Mehari Taddele Maru (2013-05-23)
cc A U The AU has now entered the new fifth era of delivery and democracy to avoid uprisings and revolutions and to ensure human security by re-inventing Pan-Africanism for 21st century Africa
The African Union at 50: Missed opportunities and lessons for the future
Yves Niyiragira (2013-05-23)
cc H A Post-independent African leaders have failed to realise the aspirations and hopes of self-determination and unity of the African people. There are five basic steps that AU member states need to take now to put Africans on the path to full integration
Pan-Africanism and African renaissance
Antony Otieno Ong’ayo (2013-05-22)
cc E C The AU is well placed to articulate the Pan-African agenda for the benefit of the people, yet the majority of African presidents are busy with self-preservation and less supportive of initiatives that promote regional and continental integration. When will the Union to stop being a talking and become a serious institution?
Where is Nkrumah’s United States of Africa 50 years on?
Samwin Banienuba (2013-05-22)
cc R A The African Union must cultivate a united Africa and national governments need to be keenly wary of the divide-and-rule tactics of external powers pursuing selfish interests
How far is the United States of Africa?
Motsoko Pheko (2013-05-22)
cc E H How is it that 50 years on, the OAU/AU has failed in the main objective for which it was founded? Because the United States of Africa cannot be brought about by leaders who are not Pan-Africanists
Culture and communication as tool of diplomacy
Dele Meiji Fatunla (2013-05-22)
cc K G Africa is undergoing an artistic renaissance that could be a part of the African Union’s approach in communicating the aspirations of Africa and Africans, engaging Africans in critical discussion and representing the potential strength in the diversity of the continent
The African Union: is it time for cultural diplomacy to take centre-stage?
Ade Daramy (2013-05-22)
cc S H It is time for the African Union to push for cultural diplomacy in the form of a Museum of African Music, Arts and Culture as an entity for both preservation and a celebration of our similarities as well as the richness of our cultural diversity
Development and the double-sided mirror
Tunde Jegede (2013-05-22)
cc C H There is a need for a cultural rebirth in Africa as part of the radical economic and social transformation of the continent. A new African consciousness that is free from the chains of ‘colonial’, ‘post-colonial’ and ‘decolonial’ must be located in African reference points
Our future grown in Africa
Mbongeni Ngulube (2013-05-23)
cc M M Food security has been a major concern for Africans over the decades but, surpringly, the OAU/AU did little to support agriculture and other forms of food production. This needs to change, beginning with effective support for the small-scale farmer
Peace in our time
Onyekachi Wambu (2013-05-22)
cc O W Given that the roots of so much intra-state conflict is lack of social justice, inequality and marginalisation suffered by different groups, strategies on removing these obstacles and building intra-group solidarity should be the key peace-building pan-African project of the next 50 years
Tajudeen memorial 2013
Dede Amanor-Wilks (2013-05-22)
cc Fahamu I believe that Tajudeen loved young people because he could see in them the potential to transform society for the better before it transformed individuals for the worse
Four years on the spirit of the African soldier the indefatigable Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem lives on
Sonny Onyegbula (2013-05-22)
cc N N In a personal reflection of the late Dr.Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a foremost champion of Pan-Africanism in recent years, he is remembered as one who spoke truth to the powerful and the powerless with indefatigable commitment to the poor of Africa
A different ‘Jubilee’: Fresh chance at 50 for AU on justice?
Otsieno Namwaya and Elizabeth Evenson (2013-05-22)
cc S O In accordance with its founding principles, the AU must actively encourage its members to strengthen domestic justice mechanisms and, where they are either weak or blocked politically, to embrace the ICC as a court of last resort
Africa and US imperialism
Abayomi Azikiwe (2013-05-23)
cc U F A reflection on five decades since the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), while the Pentagon and NATO escalate their war drive on the continent
AU coming of age a cause for celebration?
Titi. A. Banjoko (2013-05-22)
cc D C The focus of the next 50 years for the African Union should be to move from being a rigid bureaucracy to an agile organisation, which is able to flex and move at speed in a global society
50 years after, is the AU, formerly the OAU, a success or failure?
Theodore Menelik-Mfuni (2013-05-22)
cc E W In terms of Africa’s decolonisation and integration the OAU and the AU have a mixed score. It is important to allow time for some of the AU’s policies to start biting.
The birth of the OAU
Cameron Duodu (2013-05-23)
cc M K Africans yearn to come and go within the continent without visas; to work where they like; and expect to be treated as if they were ‘home’ – despite being far away from the territorial limits into which they were originally born