From the OAU to the AU

Muhammad Gassama

Description

From 1986 to this date the author works at the OAU/AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as a Translator and Reviser, and was thus a direct witness od the development of the Pan African organization. He was the President of the Editorial Board of the "Forum", the magazine of the AU Staff Association, to which he was also a Secretary General until 2005.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Harmattan Littérature

Informations

• Publié par: L'Harmattan
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 24
• EAN13: 9782336381428
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

e Odyssey of a Continental Organization Muhammad I S G

rom the OAU to the AU F

Muhammad I S G

RASD

From the OAU to the AU

The Odyssey of a Continental Organization

Muhammad I S Gassama

© Muhammad I S Gassama Second Edition 2014 L'harmattan RASD N: 14-2015 Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail]

First Edition 2013 Fulladu Publishers

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the permission of the author.

To: My dear parents, Ah Ahmameh Gassama and Ajah Fatou Njie Funneh of blessed memory to whom I owe everything in life.

Table of Contents

Preface to tis Second Edition ........................................................................... 8 PREFACE .......................................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... 12 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 14 Learning on te Job .......................................................................................... 17 At te Beginning here Was OAU ..................................................................... 20 he OAU Governance Structure ........................................................................ 24 A House of Antiquities...................................................................................... 27 Tripoli I and II.................................................................................................. 30 Supprimé: A Reforms Process hat Went Terribly Wrong ................................. 34 How te OAU Secretary General and he AUC Cairperson Are Elected ......... 36 Cange of Guard .............................................................................................. 39 From te Carter to te Constitutive Act.......................................................... 44 Wat Distinguises te AU From te OAU ...................................................... 47 he Unfinised-Job of Union Building ............................................................. 52 he Trinity of Vision, Mission and te Strategic Planning ................................ 56 A Disappointed Konaré .................................................................................... 61 Wy Did Successive Attempts at Staff Evaluation Fail ...................................... 63 he Gaddafi Factor and its Impact on te OAU/AU andAfrica As a Wole ....... 66 he Watcdog role of OAU/AU Staff Association.............................................. 71 he Way te OAU/AU Does hings .................................................................. 74 he Anglopone-Francopone Dicotomy....................................................... 78 Internal Consultation and Coordination .......................................................... 81 Transformation and Renewal ............................................................................ 86 Matters of Grave Concern ................................................................................. 92 Does te AU Need to Reinvent Itself?................................................................ 95 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 97 Appendix 1: Founding Faters of te OAU ...................................................... 100 Appendix 2: Secretaries General of te OAU/Cairpersons of te AUC ........... 102 Appendix 3: he 54 African Union Member States .......................................... 103

MIS Gassama

Preface to tis Second Edition  It is barely a year and half since the îrst edition of this Book has seen light of day. In terms of both space and time, the reader may surmise that not much water had gone under the bridge since to warrant the publication of a second edition. This may be so to a point.

 However, given the plethora of comments, observations and advice that the îrst edition surprisingly attracted from a large coterie of friends and colleagues and indeed some other readers who commended my efforts to come up with what they ranked as a must-read, like them, I equally felt the need for a second edition whose primary objective is to attend to the discernible information gap discovered in the îrst edition.

As it is all too natural, most îrst attempts of the sort I embarked upon may fall short of being capable of readily capturing all the necessary components. Hence the need for a second attempt designed to sufîciently cover gap-îlling events and major enabling players left out in the original text, albeit inadvertently. We shall thus try to the best of our ability, to reect in this edition all the points in the absence of which the yawning missing links alluded to earlier, could not be reinstated in a manner that would prove reassuring to the readership.

That said, it is worth noting that the additional issues addressed in this edition are so wide-ranging and far-reaching that I may not be able to do them deserving justice. As a matter of fact, my intention is simply to present to the reader a much broader picture of those issues for a greater appreciation. It is consequently my sincere prayer that I register a measure of success in bringing that about. M I S Gassama Addis Ababa March 2014

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From the OAU to the AU

PREFACE The riddle in trying to construct one’s recollection of events, incidents and issues that unfolded during the long period one has pleasantly for the most part, expended in the service of the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and much later its successor, the African Union (AU), is deciding where to take off as memories of all those years start pouring in from all directions in an avalanche. This is hardly surprising as well over two and a half decades of working for Africa’s premier Organisation is bound to have exposed one to a vast array of in-house knowledge and experience that needs to be faithfully captured for what it is and imparted to the readership and posterity. Having grown up with the General Secretariat of the OAU as a young lad eager to learn and to serve the African Continent, I am now in a vintage position after a well – earned retirement to tell the tale of my experience and career.

Another difîculty in reducing to record this life time experience acquired and enriched over a protracted period of time, is how to resist the temptation of wanting to say it all when one may not necessarily be at liberty to do so. This is because like any other institution, the OAU/AU has in its skeleton the good blended curiously with the bad. I would therefore like to crave the indulgence of all those into whose hands these notes may fall, including particularly those associated in one way or another, with the management of the Organisation, past and present, to recount my personal version of the story. In doing so, I am mindful of the fact that I happened to be among the few who have been privileged to be at Africa’s service on the continental plane in a mini-United Nations-like environment where a rich blend of cultures and backgrounds converge, thereby rendering this unique Pan-African forum a veritable universal melting pot for Africa.

It has to be said at this juncture that the OAU/AU is many

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