The OAU: From Political to Economic Pan-Africanism

THE OAU: FROM POLITICAL TO ECONOMIC PAN-AFRICANISM Jean-Emmanuel Pondi AN 1986 THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY (OAU) reversed its past tendency to emphasize political matters and instead turned its attention toward the urgent economic problems of the continent. This historic shift was expressed in late May in an unusual initiative by the OAU member states at the United Nations General Assembly. The decision to request a UN Special Session to examine Africa's economic plight and to draft an OAU report — contributed to by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)-was made during the twenty-first OAU Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in July 1985. This essay examines the changes in the OAU focus as reflected in the OAU-drafted African Priority Programme for Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990 (APPER). It analyzes why African leadership has tended to deal with political rather than economic matters, despite a gradually worsening economic situation on the continent, and why it broke that trend to launch a new economic initiative.1 Finally, taking into account the new African attitude, some policy suggestions for U.S. -African relations are offered. 1 . See African Priority Programmefor Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990 (APPER), OAU/ECM/2XV, Rev. 2 (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 31 March 1986). Jean-Emmanuel Pondi was a visiting research fellow in the African Studies Program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) earlier in 1986 and now teaches international politics at the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) in Yaounde. Dr. Pondi wishes to express his appreciation to professors I. William Zartman and Michael M. Schatzberg of SAIS, and to Samuel Otoo, for their comments on an earlier draft of this article. 199 200 SAIS REVIEW AS A SYNTHESIS OF RECOMMENDATIONS advanced by fifty African heads of state, APPER embodies the commitment of African leaders to mobilize internal resources and take all necessary actions to reorder their development priorities. Their aim is to form more productive, agro-industrial based economies with improved access — on more favorable terms — to Western markets. A prompt implementation of the report's recommendations should help "launch the continent on the path of dynamic selfreliant and self-sustained economic development in a more favorable environment ," according to the authors of APPER.2 APPER analyzes Africa's internal and external economic problems. Among the endogenous problems, the most important is the mismanagement of human and natural resources by national governments. In Uganda, for example, the national airline owned only two planes but employed 1,400 people. Population planning is another area of inadequate government leadership cited in APPER. Population growth rates in Africa are twice as high as the rate of growth of food production. Furthermore , the population is not only rising but doing so in a lopsided fashion that is detrimental to economic growth. The percentage of unproductive young and old people is growing more rapidly than that of the productive working-age population; half of the population of subsanaran Africa is fifteen years old or less. In addition, the main contributor to African development is the African peasant, who represents 80 percent of the population. However, the wealth generated by the sale of peasant agricultural products is enjoyed mostly by those in the city; the actual farmers receive little of it. Another problem is deforestation: in many parts of Africa, forests have routinely been cut down without replanting. However, perhaps because of the political sensitivity of some issues, APPER does not offer a comprehensive survey of the problems of African development. One endogenous waste of resources neglected by the drafters is the widespread corruption of African governments. The effect of this corruption is to divert already scarce national funds to the already wealthy African elite, causing great harm to national economic growth and development. Some of the most damaging exogenous constraints on African economic development are listed in APPER: the gradual deterioration of Africa's terms of trade since the 1960s; the high cost of energy in the 1970s (Africa's oil bill quadrupled between 1972 and 1975); high international interest rates; a heavy debt burden; and the drought-related famines...