lost illusions

Do Africans still believe in the African Union?

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This article is part of the dossier:

Are Africans losing faith in the AU?

By François Soudan

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Posted on August 2, 2022 12:18

© Muammar Gaddafi’s speech at the launch of the African Union in Durban on 9 July 2002. MONTAGE JA: ALEXANDER JOE/AFP — Muammar Gaddafi’s speech at the launch of the African Union in Durban on 9 July 2002. MONTAGE JA: ALEXANDER JOE/AFP

At 20 years old, the African Union is still seen by Africans as ineffective and unreliable. This stems from a lack of political will from its heads of state, who are reluctant to bolster the organisation’s power, which is the only way to re-establish a bond of trust with the continent’s populations.

This is part 1 of a 4-part series

Kings Park Stadium in Durban, 9 July 2002. In what was the last summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the first of the African Union (AU), the continent’s heads of state turned out in droves amidst a cacophony of vuvuzelas, military music and Zulu dances.

At the podium, flanked by amazons in uniforms, Gaddafi reminded his peers that it was his idea to replace a dying union with the new and pragmatic union which would pave the way for the ‘United States of Africa’. Had he not launched it in Sirte three years earlier? “We accept those who want to help us, but we don’t want those who wish to impose their own terms on us,” he added, before concluding with one of his favourite slogans: “African land for Africans!”

Wade, Mbeki, Mugabe, Mubarak, Dos Santos, Kabila, Gbagbo, Déby, Bongo, El-Béchir, Zenawi… Like the Libyan ‘Guide’, many of the

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