Abstract:
The dawn of the 21st century has witnessed the transformation of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU). Thabo
Mbeki and other pioneers of this transformation were concerned about
the failure of the OAU to adapt to the changes in the international system.
They saw an urgent need for Africa’s continental body to shed its
image of being seen internationally as the “dictator’s club”. As such,
they envisaged that the newly born AU would elevate the promotion
of unity and solidarity among African states from a political rhetoric into
a principled action. It was also hoped that AU would tap into its unity
and solidarity for the purpose of harnessing the notion of “African solutions
for African problems”. It appears that since the pioneers of the AU’s
transformation have left the presidency of their countries (South Africa,
Nigeria and Burkina Faso), the AU is regressing towards the culture of the
defunct OAU. If the response of the AU to the 2011 crisis in Libya and the
circumstances leading to the election of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as
the AU Commission Chairperson is anything to go by, it is safe to state
that “African Unity” remains a farfetched dream. Against this background,
this Afrocentric article uses discourse approach and document
analysis in their broadest form to examine the road navigated by the AU
to bring about “African Unity"
