Africa has been subject to successive waves of regional integration initiatives. But while Europe embarked upon this process for economic purposes, African solidarity had a different intent, informed by its history and the incomplete emancipation of the continent. Since the first Pan-African gathering in 1960, many attempts have been made to channel African aspirations towards a greater political unity based on freedom, equality, justice and progress. These efforts eventually found expression in the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on 25 May 1963, during a conference of 32 independent African states.

The subsequent struggle for the complete decolonisation of Africa was completed in the mid-1990s with the first democratic election in South Africa. At the dawn of the new millennium, the political emancipation of Africa was achieved. But with some 300 million Africans still surviving on barely US $0.65 per day and with the average GDP per capita for the region calculated at US $492, the development challenges facing the continent are immense.

Against the backdrop of gradual progress towards freer trade, developing countries have been encouraged to use openness and trade as tools for economic growth. At the same time, nearly all countries are engaged in negotiating regional trade agreements with neighbouring states. According to the African Development Bank, the importance of economic integration for Africa derives mainly from the opportunities it provides to expand trade, pool resources for investment, enlarge local markets and industrialise efficiently by taking advantage of economies of scale. Most African national markets cannot sustain large-scale economic pursuits and regional integration is a prerequisite to attract foreign direct investment. Progress with economic co-operation and integration is therefore crucial in releasing Africa’s human and physical potential to accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty.

With regional economic integration proceeding apace elsewhere such as in Europe and North America, African leaders signed an agreement in 1991, aimed at the establishment of an African Economic Community (AEC) by 2025. The Abuja Treaty, building on the philosophy of the 1980 Lagos Plan, came into effect in May 1994. Its central themes revolve around solidarity and collective self-reliance; a self-sustained, endogenous development strategy; and self-sufficiency in basic needs. The AEC placed a premium on the role of subregional structures such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as the means to a structurally decentralised AEC. In this approach, the AEC differed significantly from the much more centralised and top-down approach of the African Union.

The Constitutive Act of the African Union, signed by 26 African leaders in July 2000 in Lomé, Togo, is based on the 1963 OAU Charter and the 1991 Abuja Treaty, but envisages an accelerated implementation process. It calls for the establishment of an African Central Bank, an African Court of Justice and a Pan-African Parliament.

Despite Libyan pressure to ensure that the process to establish the Union would be completed in Sirte in March 2001, the legal requirements for the Union were only met in April 2001 when Uganda, the 36th state, submitted its ratification documents to the OAU Secretariat. The Act will enter into force 30 days later, although the OAU Charter will remain operative for a transitional period of at least one year. It is now evident that the OAU/AEC Summit planned for July 2001 in Lusaka will have to take the necessary decisions about the transformation of the OAU into the African Union. The Union will possibly hold its first meeting in South Africa in 2002.

Against the background of the establishment of the African Union, this issue of the African Security Review comments, in two feature articles, on the security challenges inherent in regionalisation. This occurs at a time when the the minds of African leaders are increasingly focused on stability and security as prerequisites for development and even for democratisation.

The first article by Anthoni van Nieuwkerk explores the experiences of SADC and ECOWAS. It is accepted among donors and Africans that subregional organisations are well situated to deal with continental conflict prevention and mediation. Both regions have a turbulent history in this regard, but the utility of formal regionalism — signified by the ECOWAS Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security and the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security — is increasingly challenged by the evidence of complex regional conflict networks, within which state boundaries and government authority are of marginal consequence. This suggests a cautious response to the assumption that regional economic or development communities can transfer their collaborative duties into the security realm.

The second feature article by Festus Aboagye provides an overview of OAU peacemaking initiatives that led to the cessation of hostilities between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Aboagye focuses on the implications of the OAU Liaison Mission in Ethiopia-Eritrea (OLMEE), future OAU peace support initiatives and the emergent division of labour between the OAU and the United Nations. On the eve of the transition to the African Union, the contributions that the OAU could make within the context of a continent wracked by civil conflict are important challenges and opportunities. Regional and subregional organisations have an important role to play in stability and growth in Africa. This issue explores some of the associated challenges and opportunities.