The revival of a pan-African Identity: Explaining the Establishment of the African Union and the Organization's Changed Conception of Sovereignty
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2016-08-08
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en
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Abstract – In 2002, the African Union (AU), was inaugurated in Durban, South
Africa. Founded by the 53 member states of its predecessor, the Organization of
African Unity (OAU), the AU aims to further develop African integration,
solidarity, and unity. Whilst both the OAU and the AU were founded on the basis
of a Pan-African identity, a common identity through which Africans identify
with one another, they differ markedly in several respects. Most significantly, the
AU departs from the OAU regarding the sovereignty of its member states. The
OAU Charter of 1963 was known for its emphasis on decolonization and adhered
strictly to sovereignty as non-interference. The AU Constitutive Act, by contrast,
provides the organization with a mandate to intervene in its member states, and
emphasizes sovereignty as non-indifference. This thesis seeks to explain this
sovereignty shift with a social constructivist theoretical framework embedded in
critical realism. Although social constructivism helps to explain how the behavior
of African heads of state was informed by their common Pan-African identity,
ultimately leading to consensus concerning the establishment of the AU, it
cannot explain why Pan-Africanism came to the fore, and why new ideas about
sovereignty could be constructed. Critical realism’s stratified ontology helps to
answer these why-questions by demonstrating that underlying structural changes
enabled agency on the part of African civil and political leaders, culminating in a
redefinition of sovereignty and a revived Pan-African identity.
Keywords African Union; Critical Realism; Pan-Africanism; Social
Constructivism; Sovereignty
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen