Organisation of African Unity

On May 25, 1963, leaders of 32 independent African states met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the invitation of Emperor Haile Selassie and signed the charter of the Organisation of African Unity. The new body pledged to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its members, to coordinate their policies and to rid the continent of colonialism and white minority rule. Its headquarters stayed in Addis Ababa, and May 25 is still celebrated as Africa Day.²³

The OAU grew out of the rapid decolonization of the late 1950s and the Year of Africa in 1960, when 17 countries won independence. Pan-Africanism, a movement for African and diaspora solidarity, had a long history, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana pushed for a continental union government. Other leaders preferred cooperation among fully sovereign states. Rival blocs, the radical Casablanca group and the more cautious Monrovia group, compromised in Addis Ababa on a loose association rather than a federation, borrowing the language of sovereign equality from the United Nations charter.²

The OAU's Liberation Committee, based in Dar es Salaam, channeled money and support to movements fighting Portuguese colonial rule, Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. In 1964 members agreed to keep the borders inherited from colonial rule to avoid endless territorial wars. But the principle of non-interference meant the organization said little about coups, dictatorships and mass killings inside member states. In 2002 it was replaced by the African Union, launched in Durban with a broader mandate that allows intervention in cases of genocide and war crimes.¹²