Constitutive Act of the African Union

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: Compare the Constitutive Act of the African Union with the Treaty on European Union, which has attempted to achieve unity among the nations of Europe. How do the African Union and the European Union differ, and how are they similar? What common goals do the two organizations have? To what extent does the African Economic Community fulfill functions in Africa that the Treaty on European Union does in Europe?
• 2.: What were some of the fundamental weaknesses of the Organization of African Unity? How might these weaknesses have contributed to the formation of the African Union?
• 3.: What role have other nations played in Africa's efforts to achieve some measure of unity and economic development? To what extent have the nations of Africa been treated as proxy states in competition between the world's major powers?
• 4.: Why do you think economic development has been slow to come to Africa, particularly in light of the goals of the African Union and the richness of Africa's resources? Is it because of the legacy of colonialism? The fragmentation of the continent? Internal politics? Other causes?
• 5.: Compare this document with the Resolutions of the National Congress of British West Africa, which were signed in 1920. To what extent did the Constitutive Act of the African Union realize goals expressed in the resolutions? How do you think the authors of the 1920 resolutions would have reacted to the Constitutive Act written eighty years later?