On 25 May, Africa Day offered us the occasion to celebrate Pan-Africanism, take stock of what is happening in our great continent, and to ask ourselves in what direction we are going. And that, in turn, begs the question: How is the African Union (AU) going to take us there?
Launched in Durban in 2002, the AU was to be the torchbearer for the new Africa—young, dynamic, and committed to Pan-Africanism. Africa demanded change, and the AU was tasked with delivering it. The Constitutive Act of the African Union imposed the highest standards on the continent’s leaders. Unconstitutional changes in government were prohibited. Article 4, specifically, mandated intervention in cases of humanitarian crisis or grave human rights abuses, and thus ushered in a new era in which Africa would act decisively to solve African problems.
In that bright dawn of the African renaissance, there was a vigorous debate about the new Africa. The idea of uniting the continent captivated us. The potential for freedom of movement, integration of economies, curbing of corruption, the creation of continental institutions such as the Pan-African Parliament inspired a hope among many for positive change. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) held out the promise of accelerating growth. The flame burnt brightly with the leaders that Africa chose: a principled, elected Pan-Africanist, Thabo Mbeki, as the first President; and a former democratic head of state, Oumer Alpha Konaré, as the first fully-constituted AU chairperson.
At the birth of the AU, the promise of change burned brightly. Today that torch is flickering.
There should be a vigorous continent-wide debate about the person to lead the AU. Ordinary people across the length and breadth of Africa should be consulted. What do they expect from the AU? How can the AU be in the forefront in the creation of a new Africa? Should it continue to take on peacekeeping challenges, or should it focus on conflict prevention and management? How is the AU to be administered? Does it need a charismatic leader, or should it choose a technocrat who can put in place the administrative and financial systems necessary for the institution to grow? Such debate has never happened.
The independence generation of African leaders, today revered for their vision, were young men in their thirties and early forties and sometimes younger. Yet today there is no readiness to hand the baton to the new generation. No doubt, the pan-African challenges today are very different from those of thirty years ago.
When mediators are chosen to lead efforts to settle Africa’s conflicts, the AU automatically looks to the ranks of superannuated diplomats. Many of them are good. Today’s causes of conflicts, however, are not the same as those of the past, and the leaders who are fighting—especially the rebels—usually are thirty or forty years younger than the men (and they are almost always men) appointed to gain their trust, understand their aspirations, and lead them to peace. Our political systems seem expressly designed to exclude the bristling energy of the youth.
Why do African political systems end up recycling the same old faces? Why do election on the continent seem preordained to end in a deal between the same old elites, where the people’s choice is regarded as no better than a distracting nuisance? Is it possible that young people find the political atmosphere stifling and alienating?
The AU is a great and noble institution. History teaches us, however, that those organizations which refuse to adapt and innovate stagnate and die. Ultimately, the quality of the AU’s leadership will best be shown by its readiness to bring younger people into senior positions at the AU Commission so that the new generation can at last participate in the decision making process in a meaningful way. The people of Africa deserve nothing less.
Abdul Mohammed is a peace advocate based in East Africa. He works on a wide range of development issues including refugee resettlement; relief and emergency, and food security programs. First published 26 January 2012.