OAU

OAU (Organization of African Unity) An international organization founded on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa with a current membership of fifty-two African states (South Africa joined 1994) plus the Saharan freedom movement POLISARIO as a full member representing the Moroccan-occupied Sahara (since 1982). Morocco left the OAU in 1984. The aim of the OAU is to further African cooperation and solidarity, oppose all forms of colonialism and apartheid, and defend human rights. At the same time, it operates on the principle of the maintenance of the status quo, and non-intervention into its members' domestic affairs. As a result of the diversity of its membership, its initiatives have largely failed. In 1980, its members proposed the creation of an African economic community by the year 2000, and in 1991 the OAU proposed the creation of an economic community in six stages by 2025. In 2001, the OAU decided to transform itself into the African Union (AU) over the next two years. The aim was the creation of a structure modelled on the EU, with a transnational parliament and an executive commission in Addis Ababa. However, there were doubts to what extent this would succeed, since the AU lacked some of the crucial founding criterias for the European Economic Community: the political coherence of member states, a common opponent such as the Soviet Union to promote a common identity, and a degree of economic stability and coherence between members states.

pan-Africanism