عنوان

Dream of Unity:

Number

LA107077

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Dream of Unity:

General Material Designation

[Article]

Other Title Information

From the United States of Africa to the Federation of African States

First Statement of Responsibility

Guy Martin

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

The Pan-Africanists leaders' dream of unity was deferred in favor of the gradualist/functionalist perspective embodied in a weak and loosely-structured Organization of African Unity (OAU) created on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). This article analyses the reasons for this failure, namely: the reluctance of newly-independent African leaders to abandon their newly-won sovereignty in favor of a broader political unity; suspicion on the part of many African leaders that Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana intended to become the super-president of a united Africa; and divide and rule strategies on the part of major Western powers (including the United States and France) meant to sabotage any attempt at African unity. The African Union which, on 26 May 2001, formally replaced the OAU, is also bound to fail because it is modeled on the European Union. The article then briefly surveys proposals for a re-configuration of the African states and a revision of the political map of Africa put forth by various authors, namely: Cheikh Anta Diop's Federal African State; Marc-Louis Ropivia's geopolitics of African regional integration; Makau wa Mutua's and Arthur Gakwandi's new political maps of Africa; Joseph Ki-Zerbo's Federal African State; Daniel Osabu-Kle's United States of Africa; Godfrey Mwakikagile's African Federal Government; and Pelle Danabo's pan-African Federal State. The article concludes with an overview of Mueni wa Muiu's Fundi wa Afrika paradigm advocating the creation of a Federation of African States (FAS) based on five sub-regional states with a federal capital (Napata) and a rotating presidency, eventually leading to total political and economic integration. The Pan-Africanists leaders' dream of unity was deferred in favor of the gradualist/functionalist perspective embodied in a weak and loosely-structured Organization of African Unity (OAU) created on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). This article analyses the reasons for this failure, namely: the reluctance of newly-independent African leaders to abandon their newly-won sovereignty in favor of a broader political unity; suspicion on the part of many African leaders that Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana intended to become the super-president of a united Africa; and divide and rule strategies on the part of major Western powers (including the United States and France) meant to sabotage any attempt at African unity. The African Union which, on 26 May 2001, formally replaced the OAU, is also bound to fail because it is modeled on the European Union. The article then briefly surveys proposals for a re-configuration of the African states and a revision of the political map of Africa put forth by various authors, namely: Cheikh Anta Diop's Federal African State; Marc-Louis Ropivia's geopolitics of African regional integration; Makau wa Mutua's and Arthur Gakwandi's new political maps of Africa; Joseph Ki-Zerbo's Federal African State; Daniel Osabu-Kle's United States of Africa; Godfrey Mwakikagile's African Federal Government; and Pelle Danabo's pan-African Federal State. The article concludes with an overview of Mueni wa Muiu's Fundi wa Afrika paradigm advocating the creation of a Federation of African States (FAS) based on five sub-regional states with a federal capital (Napata) and a rotating presidency, eventually leading to total political and economic integration.

Date of Publication

2013

Physical description

169-188

Title

African and Asian Studies

Volume Number

12/3

International Standard Serial Number

1569-2108

Subject Term

African unity

Subject Term

economic integration

Subject Term

Pan-Africanism

Subject Term

political union

Subject Term

regional cooperation

Guy Martin

Call Number

10.1163/15692108-12341261

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y