African Agency in Historical Perspective: A History of Agency Slack

Abstract

This chapter aims to trace the origins of agency slack in the history of African multilateralism. It primarily argues that the history of African multilateralism and internationalism is a trajectory of agency slack. It begins this tracing with a review of the post-independence period in the 1950s and examines the then nascent states and organizations’ role as an agential contest with imperialism and post-coloniality. It uses the case of France’s neo-colonialism as an illustration of what Africa contends with. Thereafter it examines agency in the summitry and the institutionalisation of African multilateralism starting with the OAU and well into the late 1990s as Africa transformed the OAU into the AU. The chapter then moves to a more important issue of the challenges and opportunities to African agency from within the continent, as well as the AU Commission. It ends with an apt illustration of agency slack using the case of the Africa-Arab League Partnership of 1975. It uses this case to demonstrate that agency slack has a long history in African multilateralism.