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The 9th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government took place in Accra, Ghana on July 1-3. The Summit Meeting was very well attended. In part this was because it served as yet another occasion to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the independence of Ghana. It was of course also distinguished by the fact that it was scheduled to engage in a "Grand Debate on the (African) Union Government", which it did.
The matter of the possibility of establishing an All-Africa Union Government has appeared on the agenda of the AU over the last two years. The January 2007 8th Ordinary Session of the Assembly decided that the July Accra Summit Meeting should be dedicated to a discussion of this important matter in order to reach some finality about how our continent should proceed with regard to the issue of the establishment of a Union Government.
The Summit Meeting concluded with the adoption of the Accra Declaration, which did indeed specify the Continental Programme of Action to address the issue of a Union Government. But before we reflect on the content of the Accra Declaration, we must make some comments on various issues that relate to this important matter.
A shared destiny:
For many decades, the peoples of Africa have shared the hope that in time Africa would unite, repudiating the divisions imposed on the continent during the period of imperialism and colonialism, which gave our countries their national boundaries.
The desire to unite was driven by the recognition of the fact that the peoples of Africa share a common destiny and that we would succeed to secure our rightful place among the world community of nations when and if we are able to act together as one integrated unit, in fact a United States of Africa.
All the African Heads of State and Government and the Ministers who participated in the Summit Meeting reemphasised and underlined this view. There is absolutely no doubt that our continent's political leadership is firmly committed to the vision of a united Africa. This leadership understands very well what this would mean in terms of the full recovery of the dignity of the African people, including those in the Diaspora.
It also clearly understands the critical importance of African integration and unity to the achievement of the goal of a better life for all our peoples. Regularly and correctly, many of the 40 speakers who addressed the Summit Meeting during the general debate recalled the appeal made by Kwame Nkrumah, an Esteemed Member of the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo, that - Africa must Unite!
Reflecting this strong conviction, the Accra Declaration said Africa's leaders are convinced "of the need for common responses to the major challenges of globalisation facing Africa and boosting regional integration processes through an effective continental mechanism. (They recognise) that opening up narrow domestic markets to greater trade and investment through freer movement of persons, goods, services and capital would accelerate growth thus, reducing excessive weaknesses of many of our Member of States, (and that the envisaged) Union Government should be built on common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks. (Given the critical importance of this matter, Africa's political leaders also acknowledge) the importance of involving the African peoples in order to ensure that the African Union is a Union of peoples and not just a "Union of states and governments," as well as the African Diaspora in the processes of economic and political integration of our continent."
Our mandate:
Our delegation at the Accra Summit Meeting was especially empowered to participate in the deliberations for a number of reasons. One of these was that our National Assembly had discussed our approach to the issue of the formation of a Union Government.
The overwhelming view of this important chamber of our National Parliament was that our country should support and encourage the advancement of our continent towards its integration and unity. The National Assembly said we should work towards this objective systematically and step by step, starting by laying a firm foundation and then proceeding to build the required edifice.
The July 27-30 ANC National Policy Conference had also considered this matter. It adopted exactly the same approach taken by our National Assembly. Specifically, it said our movement "in principle supports the establishment of the Union Government and the creation of the United States of Africa as a step towards the strategic goal of the unification of Africa.
"The process must be informed by a developmental agenda for Africa with an immediate focus on building regional economic communities (RECs).and the strengthening of the AU, and all its organs, in its role as a catalyst towards the formation of the Union of African States."
Beyond all this we were empowered by the fact that for us, the vision of a United Africa is more than 150 years old. Already in the 1850s, our emerging modern intelligentsia, represented by such outstanding patriots as the Rev Tiyo Soga, spoke out in favour of a United Africa.
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