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- iHaveNet.com: Africa Current Events
Why The African Union Should Be Dismantled
By S.N. Sangmpam
Sub-Saharan Africa should be allowed to reconstitute itself into a self-sustaining, organically integrated Unifederation that can address its predicament.
Because they want to solve the severe socioeconomic and political underdevelopment of Africa, Pan Africanists have proposed and implemented a continental union that encompasses the whole continent of Africa. From Nkrumah's call for the total unification of Africa to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the African Union (
The Gaddafi episode is instructive. Gaddafi's vocal and militant support for
The Gaddafi episode best alludes to deeper problems that favor the dismantlement of
Second, discontinuation of
(1) the low level of trade exchange among African countries;
(2) a plethora of subregional organizations that supersede each other;
(3) unpaid dues by member states;
(4) political instability and conflicts, and
(5) attachment to national sovereignty at the expense of the regional or continental organizations that results in the failure to apply policy agreements.
All five implicitly justified OAU's replacement by
A third argument for the dissolution of
Fourth, cultural and "racial" differences are not the reason either. Indeed, why
Nevertheless, this racial and cultural split is not why
Deeper Reasons
None of these four reasons explains why
The cause of the divergence of SSA socioeconomic reality from that of North Africa (and other developing regions) is the difference in the way politics has shaped this reality in both regions. Everything being equal, it is politics and its consequences that allow socioeconomic outcomes to differ from one region to another. Politics also determines institutions. Therefore, with respect to tackling socioeconomic problems, institutions that work best are those that meet one major criterion. They must be tailored to reflect the prevailing brand of politics in society and to respond directly to its socioeconomic consequences. As an All-Africa institution,
What are these organic causes or factors that impose an imprint on politics in SSA (and, hence, its socioeconomic situation)? There are four exceptional factors. One starts with SSA geoecology. It is overwhelmingly negative and more taxing on people than North Africa's (and other developing regions') despite the presence of the Sahara Desert in North Africa. Much of it derives from the fact that SSA is the most tropical of all the developing regions. For example, SSA holds the first rank in all tropical diseases. Exceptional geoecology generated three exceptional intermediary factors. The three intermediate factors more directly cause politics in SSA to differ from politics in North Africa and other developing regions, even though all developing regions share the same type of overpoliticized state.
The first intermediate factor is tribal dispersal and profusion. Geoecological constraints caused a higher dispersal, profusion, and number of tribes in SSA than in North Africa and the two other developing regions of Asia and South America. There are about 4600 tribes in SSA. North Africa (minus Western Sahara and Mauritania), by contrast, counts about 96 tribes, most of which are Berber. SSA has about 48 times the number of tribes of North Africa. Tribal dispersal and profusion caused tribal horizontality. Tribal horizontality assumes equality among tribal groups. It differs from "ethnic" verticality in North Africa (and in Asia and South America), where one "ethnic" group (e.g., Arabs in North Africa) dominates all other groups. In tribal horizontality in SSA, by contrast, political power is potentially accessible to all tribal groups. The second geoecology-generated intermediate factor is slavery. Goecology contributed in a profound way to slavery and slave trade in SSA. Although slavery has existed in almost all continents, slavery in SSA was exceptional. It was the largest forced migration in modern history. Its impact was felt in all continents, except Oceania. And its effects have persisted up to the 21st century.
The link between this exceptional nature of slavery and geoecology has been shown. Because of slavery, a higher level of insecurity and inferiority complex characterizes the SSA political leadership than is the case in North Africa (and Asia and South America). The third exceptional intermediate factor is fragile traditional economic organizations. SSA geoecology, tribal dispersal, and slavery played a determinant role in this fragility. By 1960 SSA economic outputs (in GDP), derived from both precolonial and colonial periods, were lower than those of North Africa (and Asia and South America). Due to the fragile traditional economies and lower economic outputs, a more extreme form of socioeconomic deprivation dominates political competition in SSA than in North Africa and the two other developing regions. The three intermediate factors, their attendant tribal horizontality, extreme socioeconomic deprivation, and insecurity-stricken political leadership deeply structure and shape politics in SSA. Although North Africa (and the two other developing regions) shares the same type of overpoliticized state as SSA, the three phenomena lend to SSA politics a more Hobbesian and exceptional character.
This exceptional character explains why in SSA the institutions of the state have been more predatory and viciously appropriated by some groups or individuals -- often and almost always tied up to tribal claims and interests; why extreme forms of political buffoonery verging on sadism have occurred there (e.g., Idi Amin, Bokasa, Doe, Abacha); why SSA has brewed more civil wars than any other developing region; why it has a higher political strife index and lower peace index than the other developing regions (as a historically concurrent and multistate "revolution", the "Arab Spring" is not considered here in the comparison); why in the "consolidated democracy era," SSA has witnessed the larger number of military coups and coup attempts (e.g., Mauritania, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Niger, Mali, Central African Republic, and coup attempts in Benin, Malawi, South Sudan, and Congo-Kinshasa); and why there are more so-called "failed states" in SSA than in the other developing regions.
The viciously Hobbesian character of politics in SSA prevents the state from acting as the normal institution through which public policies are taken to tackle the problems of security, welfare, and socioeconomic development. To be sure, SSA shares the causes of "Third World underdevelopment" with North Africa and the other regions. However, the cumulative impact of this exceptional politics on the state explains the persistent and widening gap in socioeconomic outcomes between SSA and North Africa (and Asia and South America). Like its causes, SSA socioeconomic lag is organic, that is, it applies in roughly the same way to all SSA countries.
Unifederation as Institutional Response
What, then, is the institutional format that can provide an equivalent organic response to SSA socioeconomic lag? This brings me back to the point made earlier about institutions. Institutions reflect and respond to specific situations. Institutions that work best are those that are tailored to reflect the prevailing brand of politics in society and to respond directly to its socioeconomic consequences. Therefore, the institution apt to solve SSA socioeconomic predicament needs to reflect and respond to the organic differential causes and consequences of SSA politics. The common pitfall of Pan Africanists is to be oblivious of the specifically organic nature of the SSA predicament and its differences from North Africa's situation. Likewise, those who defend individual country-based solutions in the hope of having some SSA countries become "the next China or South Korea" are equally oblivious to the organic reality of the SSA predicament.
This organic difference requires the administrative and political separation of SSA from North Africa–hence the dissolution of
In contrast to the European Union model copied by
Unifederation involves four payoffs:
(1) a unique political framework for tackling SSA socioeconomic lag;
(2) a better democratization process, as it creates conditions for compromise;
(3) elimination of the conditions that breed strife by democratizing the rearranged SSA space and by standing as the collective center of sovereign decisions;
(4) a solution for the acute insecurity and inferiority complex of the SSA political leadership thanks to the resultant socioeconomic payoffs and the elimination of the conditions that contribute to the complex.
The continental unification of Africa, which includes North Africa and SSA, as proposed by Pan Africanists is a pipe dream because it will never solve the SSA lagging socioeconomic situation. Unifederation, by contrast, is not a pipe dream because it squarely addresses this lag. Its feasibility is made easier by SSA suffering masses' thirst for rational solutions that move them away from the "poorest region" status; by the democratic gains of the last twenty years; and by globalization's advances in communication, economic activities, and erosion of the national state.
As high as the hurdles faced by the implementation of a SSA Unifederation may seem, they are by far more salutary for SSA than the "growing pains" of
References
Kodjo, Edem, 1985, Et Demain L’Afrique, Paris: Stock
Nkrumah, Kwame, 1970, Africa Must Unite, New York: International Publishers.
Sangmpam, S.N., 2007a, Comparing Apples and mangoes: The Overpoliticized State in Developing Countries, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
_____, 2007b, "Politics Rule: The False Primacy of Institutions in Developing Countries," Political Studies, Vol. 55: 201-224.
About The Author (S.N. Sangmpam):
S.N. Sangmpam is a professor of macro-comparative political economy, International Relations, and African American Politics at Syracuse University. He is the author of, among others, Comparing Apples and mangoes: The Overpoliticized State in Developing Countries and Opening Old Wounds: Does Sub-Saharan Africa have Tribes or Ethnicities, and Why does It Matter?
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Article: Courtesy E-International Relations.
Africa - "Why The African Union Should Be Dismantled"