Regional Groupings, the Organisation of African Unity, and the South African Issue

Abstract

Following independence most African states had closer ties, especially in the economic field, with outside states than they had with each other, and foreign powers thus exercised considerable leverage within the continent. This applied especially to the former colonial powers since the ‘mother country’ was normally the new state’s principal trading partner; economic, financial and cultural links between France and its former colonies (except Guinea) were particularly close. To President Nkrumah of Ghana the relationship smacked of neo-colonialism: he charged the metropolitan powers with granting formal political independence while still retaining economic control over their fledglings. He believed that a united Africa, subject to a single government, was the only effective way of terminating this relationship, as well as of ending racist minority rule in Africa. In his view, regional blocs were incompatible with African unity: they not only impeded its achievement, but would sap its strength once it had been achieved.¹ The Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963, owed much to Nkrumah’s statesmanship, but fell well short of his vision. Moreover, regional groupings, more often in the form of functional rather than political unions, continued to proliferate.