African Union

The African Union (abbreviated AU), founded in July 2002, is the successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Modelled after the European Union (but currently with powers closer to the Commonwealth of Nations), it aims to help promote democracy, human rights and development across Africa, especially by increasing foreign investment through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) program. Its first chairman was South African president Thabo Mbeki.

Origins and history

The African Union originated in the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was established on May 25, 1963.

Related Topics:
Organisation of African Unity - May 25 - 1963

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The idea of an African Union began with the vision of a "United States of Africa" of controversial Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, who, frustrated by developments in the Arab world, has in recent years largely given up his long-held ideologies of Arab nationalism and Pan-Arabism, even publicly forsaking identity as an Arab, preferring instead the label African. Having now taken up Pan Africanism, and from Libya's position of relative wealth within the African economy, Qaddafi plays an important role in African affairs, dispensing liberal amounts of foreign aid on cash-poor friends across the continent, where he has long enjoyed a better reputation than in other areas of the world.

Related Topics:
United States of Africa - Libyan - Muammar al-Qaddafi - Arab world - Ideologies - Arab nationalism - Pan-Arabism - Arab - Pan Africanism - Relative wealth within the African economy - Role in African affairs - Foreign aid

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The heads of state and heads of government of the OAU issued the Sirte Declaration on September 9, 1999, calling for the establishment of an African Union. The Sirte Declaration was followed by summits at Lomé in 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for the implementation of the African Union was adopted.

Related Topics:
Sirte Declaration - September 9 - 1999 - Lomé - 2000 - Constitutive Act of the African Union - Lusaka - 2001

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The African Union was launched in Durban on July 9, 2002, by its first president, South African Thabo Mbeki, at the first session of the Assembly of the African Union. The second session of the Assembly was in Maputo in 2003, and the third session in Addis Ababa on July 6, 2004. On August 3, 2005 a coup transpired in Mauritania that led the African Union to suspend the country from all organizational activites.

Related Topics:
Durban - July 9 - 2002 - South African - Thabo Mbeki - Maputo - 2003 - Addis Ababa - July 6 - 2004 - August 3 - 2005 - Mauritania

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