Gaddafi’s failed vision of a United States of Africa - P3
This third part of the story of former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi recounts his Pan-African activities, when from 1997 onwards he gradually intensified his attempts to push for a United States of Africa.
In July 1999, the Libyan leader attended the 35th Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Summit in the Algiers where he called for greater political and economic integration across the African continent.
Speaking at the summit he said: “…We must create a Pan-African Congress and Integration Bank. The proposed congress would boost the continent’s drive towards unity, while the bank would push forward the process for the implementation of the treaty on the Economic Community of Africa…” On the 9th of September 1999, Muammar Gaddafi championed the Sirte Declaration that announced the decisions to establish the African Union (AU) in Sirte, Libya; and in July 2000 the AU Constitution was adopted in Lomé Togo, followed by its inauguration in July 2002 in Durban, South Africa to replace the OAU. The inauguration of the AU marked the beginning of a new phase of the pan-African struggle to unite the continent.
Reject conditional aid
At the founding summit of the AU in Durban, in July 2002, Gaddafi pressed for African states to reject conditional aid and dominion from the developed world when he said: “…It is quite hard and difficult for an African man to believe he will be treated on an equal footing by the colonisers and the racists… I don’t believe they have changed their racist mentality…”
The AU was thought to rekindle the vision for a united Africa that was proposed by Nkrumah in the 1960s. Gaddafi and his colleagues in founding the AU relit the dreams of Nkrumah Nasser and to unite Africa, and it was believed that the AU was to be a prescription that would revive the activities of the establishment of a grand nation – the United States of Africa; a nation that would have its own army, passport, and currency to achieve the long-awaited economic freedom of the continent.
On the 3rd AU Summit held in Libya in July 2005, a relentless Gaddafi once again called for greater integration of the African nations. He said: “…The United States of Africa is the hope…”
Again, on July 27, 2010, at the AU Summit in Kampala, Gaddafi expressed his hope for a united Africa when he said: “…I am satisfied that Africa is going along its historic and right road… One day it will become similar to the United States of America…”
Clearly, his belief was unshakable. He emphasised that: “…Each time we solve African problems we move in the direction of peace and unity.
Although some African leaders always rejected his Pan-African proposal that called for the immediate establishment of the United States of Africa, they began to appreciate him as a leader of Africa as was demonstrated in February 2009 during the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when he became the AU chairman and was crowned the title of the ‘King of Kings’ by African traditional leaders.
Unfortunately, his pan-African and nationalist sentiments were viewed as a threat to the interests of Western neo-colonialists in the African continent. As said earlier, he came to be regarded by the West as a terrorist and dictator. He was later pursued by Nato’s West military might and eliminated on the 20th of October 2011.
