It was significant that among the first to offer help and welcome to the new African Union was the European Union. For those might scoff at the idea of the African Union having any chance at achieving even part of its lofty aims to secure peace, good government, prosperity and human rights in Africa, the European experience is worth considering.
At the end of World War II, Europe was in tatters. The war had killed 10 per cent of its population and left its economies in ruin. In the years before the war, despotism, dictatorship, breaches of human rights, economic depression and exploitation of minorities were the norm and an population explosion was about to happen. Also half of Europe was to remain under dictatorship for more than 40 years after the war. In short, Europe was then was much like Africa is now.
The task is not hopeless for Africa, even though there are obvious differences.
The African Union did not get off to a good start. Rather than excluding states obviously not committed to economic and political freedoms, as the early EU did, the AU has included them. Under the EU pattern, the original few built up a common market, political freedoms and the rule of law. The result was a standard of living that was the envy of other European states who clamoured to join. The AU, on the other hand, starts with liability of having as members nasty dictatorships with ugly dictators bent upon personal wealth. At the AU’s very beginnings, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi attempted to undermine the democratic ideals of countries like South Africa.
At least the formal structure of the old Organisation of African Unity has been swept away. That organisation had been perverted by many African leaders. Initially it was geared towards ending colonialism, but later became the vehicle to legitimise the dictatorships that replaced colonialism under the twin scourges of modern Africa – the unwritten rule that no African leader or Government will criticise another African leader or Government and the rule that the colonial borders that became national borders would remain sacrosanct. The Organisation of African Unity was a vehicle of moral support for corruption and despotism. It is now critical that the AU build up some credibility by showing a willingness to take on those African leaders who ignore the rule of law, reject democracy, allow corruption and engage in conflict (bother internal and external) to disguise their own failings. It must put aside the old African dogma that once the colonialists were driven out Africa would advance to prosperity and the dogma that followed it that still blames colonialism and former colonial powers for Africa’s present woes.
African leaders must get past the blame game. It is unfortunate that colonial boundaries have divided linguistic and ethnic groups and that Africa with 10 per cent of the world’s population has about a third of its nations, meaning that many African nations are small and struggling. The answer, though, is co-operation, trade and closer links between African nations. The answer also is to generate a peer pressure among these nations to promote democracy and the rule of law – that is the path to greater prosperity.
Insularity, the blame game, the chip on the shoulder and a mutual support of bad government is the path to continued poverty. The African Union is a glimmer of light and hope after a desperate post-colonial history in Africa.
The important thing is for the African Union to become a vehicle through which democratic Africa can influence events in despotic Africa. If the western world see that happening, it will be more likely to lend a hand.