The organization of African unity as an expression of continental political project in the post- independence : disputes and claims

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of the African agency in the regional and international levels in the context of the first independence to understand your goals and present a response to the simplistic idea that Africa is bound to be a major victim of injustices through which it passed. In this sense, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) will be the subject matter of this article given that its creation was, in the context analyzed, the first answer of African countries to the local and international problems they were experiencing. The analysis of the summits from 1963 to 1976 will be carried out considering not only the broad common goals among its members, but also their disputed interests and especially the clash between Egypt and Ghana for the leadership of the continent. The sources researched are the declarations of the OAU and the specialized bibliography on the subject that discusses the context in which the summits were held and the main African and international political issues of the time. Finally, it is concluded that the OAU was able to show to the rest of the world that African agency could no longer be neglected in the international system due to the political importance of the continent.