It has been two
months since the African Ambassadors Group in Washington DC, including Zambia’s
Ambassador Mr. Palan Mulonda celebrated the 50th anniversary of the
African Union at the Washington Hilton Hotel along 700 other guests.
At this celebration,the
keynote address was made by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African
Affairs Reuben Brigety. Other speakers included His Excellency Serge Mombouli,
Ambassador of the Republic of Congo and Chairman, Africa Day 2013 Organizing
Committee, His Excellency Abdalla Baali, Ambassador of Algeria and
Representative of the Chairman of the African Union and His Excellency Elkanah
Odembo, Ambassador of Kenya who made remarks on behalf of the African
Ambassadors Group.
Welcoming the guests
at this ocassion, Ambassador Serge Mombouli observed that the 50th
anniversary celebration marked a historic milestone for people of African
descent. He noted that the anniversary was to celebrate Africa’s past, present
and future. He also hoped that Africans would continue to work and fulfill the
central goals of the visionary leaders who gave birth to African Unity 50 years
ago.
Further, Ambassador
Mombouli said the African Union’s golden jubillee was being commemorated on the
theme “ Pan Africanism and the African Renaissance”, adding that under this theme, Africa was looking at that
spirit of pan Africanism that inspires Africans through solidarity, unity of
purpose to reflect on the road travelled
since 1963.
Thereafter, a message
on behalf of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegan who is also
Chairman of the African Union was read by His Excellency Abdallah Baali who is
the Ambassador of Algeria.
The message stated that Africa Day marked not
only a great leap forward in the Pan Africanist quest for freedom, independence
and unity, but also the beginning of
collective endeavor for the realizations of Africa’s socio-economic
emancipation.
The Chairman of the
African Union observed that the major responsibility of the current and future
generations of Africans was to create a continent free from poverty and
conflict and an Africa whose citizens would enjoy middle-income status.
The Chairman of the
Ambassadors’ Group, His Excellency, Elkanah Odembo, Ambassador of Kenya and
Chairman of the meanwhile encouraged the United States to consider more
long-term and strategic investment in Africa stating that trade between the
African countries and the US had been growing rather “slowly”.
He also noted that
Africa had undertaken far reaching political and economic reforms and called
for more investment on the continent. Ambassador Odembo said the political and
economic changes had made Africa a more desirable destination for investment.
Against this background he appealed to the
United States to scale up its investment in the 44 or so African countries from
a mere US$100 billion equivalent to trade between the USA and South Korea to
something much higher.
The African Union was carved out of a
previously existing organization that was known as the Organization of African
Unity (OAU) established on May 25th in 1963 in Addis Ababa, as a
result of the OAU charter signed by representatives of 32 African governments.
A further 21 states with the exception of Morroco gradually signed over the
years.
The OAU paved the way
for the birth of the African Union (AU) in July, 1999 with four summits that
were held leading to the official launching of the African Union. The first was
the Sirte Extraordinary Session held on 9th November, 1999, followed
by the Lome Summit in 2000 that adopted
the Constitutive Act of the Union.
The Lusaka Summit of 2001 drew the roadmap for the implementation of
the AU and finally the Durban Summit of 2002 that launched the African Union
and convened the 1st Assembly of the Heads of States of the African
Union.
The vision of the
African Union is that of a continent that is integrated, prosperous and
peaceful, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the
global arena
The keynote speaker
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr. Reuben Brigety II
said the United States was confident with Africa’s future, particularly with
regards to Africa’s political unity, growing economy and expanding
opportunities.
He explained that the
spread of democracy and good governance was one of the key factors leading to
increased economic growth in Africa and that the US was pleased to recognize
that six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world were in Africa.
Turning to the
African Union, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
observed that one of the most encouraging and exciting African developments in
the last decade had been the degree to which the African Union had set pace for
unified political standards and conflict resolution on the continent.
The African Union had
taken an indispensable role in addressing political crises from Madagascar to
Mali, he said. Other successes had been scored in the adoption of the African
Union Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, the Africa Peer Review
Mechanism and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding creating a Strategic
Partnership between the US and the African Union by former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and the African Union Chairperson Ms. Dlamini Zuma
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The writer is Deputy Chief of Mission at the
Embassy of the Republic of Zambia in Washington DC
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