The crisis of African unity

By Prof. Jeffrey Haynes

The 6th Afliga fireside dialogue took place on 21 May. Beamed globally from Accra, the event was entitled: ‘Africa’s Role And Agency In Global Affairs: Past, Present And Future – Prospects And Challenges’. I was privileged to be a discussant at the event, commenting on the address of the keynote speaker, Prof. Lord Mawuko-Yevugah, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.

Africa’s global position

Africa has agency, but it remains structurally constrained, politically contested, and insufficiently institutionalised. These constraints must be addressed with the same rigour regularly applied to celebrating Africa’s continental ambitions. Not to do so, leaves Africa between aspiration and reality.

To understand Africa’s present position in global affairs, we must identify colonialism as a historical event that has passed. Colonialism is a structural condition whose legacies continue to impact on Africa’s international relations. Given colonialism’s intellectual and material inheritance, it is not so remarkable that Africa struggles today in global governance; what is perhaps surprising is that it functions at all. Founded in 1963 and driven in large part by Kwame Nkrumah’s continental vision, the Organisation of African Unity was an audacious act of political solidarity at a time and in an international context that was indifferent or even hostile to African self-determination. Transformation to the African Union in 2002 represented a genuine ambition to move beyond the OAU’s narrow, sovereignty-obsessed architecture toward a more interventionist, people-centred continental project.

Conceptualising African Agency

Today, African states and continental institutions do not possess or exercise sufficient capacity to enable meaningful, sustained, and directed efforts towards improved African development. What do we mean when we speak of African agency in global affairs?

To answer the question, it is necessary to draw attention to the class dynamics shaping African states’ exercise of agency, to the relationship between domestic and international dimensions of agency, and the profound gap between what African leaders project on the global stage and what they deliver for their citizens at home.

In other words, African agency in global affairs cannot be assessed solely by examining what African states do on the international stage. The domestication of agency, its translation from continental proclamations into effective governance that benefits ordinary citizens, is the truest and most demanding test of whether African agency is real or merely performative. Until the agency of African states consistently works towards the benefit of the poor and marginalised, rather than serving as a mechanism for elite interests, celebration of African agency in global forums is misleading.

Between Reform and Dependency

Where does Africa stand in today’s rapidly changing global order? The continent has fifty-four member states in the United Nations, amounting to nearly a third of the membership of the UN General Assembly. Africa has permanent observer status at the G20, and there are persistent calls for permanent African representation on the UN Security Council. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), if fully implemented, would create a single market of more than 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP exceeding three trillion dollars.

At the same time, there are glaring contradictions. African governments which demand an ‘African’ seat on the UN Security Council do not speak consistently on critical global issues. For example, the AfCFTA, with genuine potential for Africa’s transformation, is held back by non-tariff barriers, inadequate infrastructure, weak dispute resolution mechanisms, and a persistent structural reality: most African economies remain commodity exporters operating in global value chains where value addition occurs elsewhere.

The Democratic Governance Crisis: The Enemy Within

It would be intellectually dishonest to speak only of external constraints holding back African unity. Internal governance crises also undermine Africa’s global positions. Over the past three years, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon, and Guinea have witnessed successful military coups. The Sahel, one of the most fragile security environments in the world, endures competing jihadist insurgencies and great power – Russia, Turkey, USA, European – rivalries. Incidentally, Ghana stands out as a beacon of democracy, an aspirational example to many Africans fighting against autocratic and dictatorial governments, whether civilian or military.

The AU and Africa’s development: The way ahead

More than six decades after the founding of the OAU, African unity is far from being achieved. What can be done? To counter historical fragmentation and to progress African unity requires deepening economic integration, strengthening of continental institutions and persistent fostering of a shared Pan-African identity. Concrete actions are both urgent and necessary to bridge the gap between political rhetoric and the practical realities of daily life across member states.

There is a major gap between rhetoric and reality when it comes to African unity. Failure to achieve African unity lies not so much in technical capacity deficits but in the neo-patrimonial character of most African states. When it is in powerful elites’ personal interest, there is celebration of African unity; when it is not does not fit with elite interests and maybe threatens their clientelist networks, there is not. In other words, there is a disconnect between what is said and what is done. The issue, then, is not so much institutional incapacity but political choice; not so much technical development problems, but questions about political leaders’ power and accountability. African governments, as well as global structures, are controlled by a handful of powerful actors. What Africans can do to change this, is a crucial question.

The writer is an Emeritus Professor of Politics at London Metropolitan University, UK.