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The Organization of African Unity and African Borders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Saadia Touval
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Extract

Anaversion to the international borders drawn by the colonial powers, if not their complete rejection, has been a consistent theme of anticolonial nationalism in Africa. The borders are blamed for the disappearance of a unity which supposedly existed in Africa in precolonial times; they are regarded as arbitrarily imposed, artificial barriers separating people of the same stock, and they are said to have balkanized Africa. The borders are considered to be one of the humiliating legacies of colonialism which, according to this view, independent Africa ought to abolish.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , Winter 1967 , pp. 102 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1967

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References

1 Probably the most publicized rejection of the borders was contained in the resolution on “Frontiers, Boundaries and Federations” of the All African People's Conference which met in Accra in 1958. For the text of the resolution see Legum, Colin, Pan Africanism: A Short Political Guide (London: Pall Mall Press, 1962), pp. 229–232Google Scholar.

2 Proceedings of the Summit Conference of Independent African States (hereinafter cited as Proceedings), Addis Ababa, May 1963, Vol. 1, section 1, Document AGENDA/CONF/5, May 15, 1963. In the final agenda of the foreign ministers' conference the Somali proposal was included under item VII, “Establishment of Permanent Conciliation Commission” (Document AGENDA/12, May 17, 1963). However, it was not listed on the agendas of the two committees set up by die foreign ministers as the establishment of a conciliation commission was subsumed under die discussion on the “Establishment of Organization of the African States” (item I of Committee I, Document CIAS/Plen./3, May 22, 1963).

3 The Somali President's address and the Ethiopian Prime Minister's reply can be found in Proceedings, Vol. I, section 2, Documents CIAS/GEN/INF/25 and CIAS/GEN/INF/43. See also Padelford, Norman J., “The Organization of African Unity,” International Organization, Summer 1964 (Vol. 18, No. 3), p. 527CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Proceedings, Vol. I, section 2, Document CIAS/GEN/INF/36, p. 7.

5 Proceedings, Vol. I, section 2, Document CIAS/GEN/INF/33, p. 2. For the views of the President of the Malagasy Republic and the Prime Minister of Nigeria see ibid., Documents CIAS/GEN/INF/14, p. 4 and CIAS/GEN/INF/35, p. 2, respectively. A similar view was expressed at the 1960 conference of African states by J. Rudolph Grimes of Liberia. See Second Conference of Independent African States, Addis Ababa, 06 14–26, 1960 (Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Ministry of Information, 1960), p. 33Google Scholar.

6 See the discussion in Boutros-Ghali, Boutros, “The Addis Ababa Charter,” International Conciliation, 01 1964 (No. 546), pp. 29–30Google Scholar. See also Padelford, , International Organization, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 525–536Google Scholar; and Elias, T. O., “The Charter of the Organization of African Unity,” American Journal of International Law, 04 1965 (Vol. 59, No. 2), pp. 243–267CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Ibid., p. 248.

8 In Article 4 of the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS) peacemaking is listed as one of the purposes of the Organization. The OAS Charter requires also by Article 20 that all disputes between American states “be submitted to the peaceful procedures” as set forth in the OAS Charter “before being referred to the Security Council of the United Nations.”

9 For a detailed discussion and a somewhat different assessment of the OAU's role see Wild, Patricia Berko, “The Organization of African Unity and the Algerian-Moroccan Border Conflict: A Study of New Machinery for Peacekeeping and for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes Among African States,” International Organization, Winter 1966 (Vol. 20, No. 1), pp. 18–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the origins of the dispute see Reyner, Anthony S., “Morocco's International Boundaries: A Factual Background,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 09 1963 (Vol. 1, No. 3), pp. 313–326CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and I. William Zartman, “The Politics of Boundaries in North and West Africa,” ibid., August 1965 (Vol. 3, No. 2), pp. 155–173.

10 The promise was contained in a secret agreement signed on July 6, 1961, by Ferhat Abbas, then head of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic. The text of the agreement was released by Morocco and published in Le Monde, October 23, 1963.

11 Tunisian mediation seemed unacceptable to both contestants. Morocco resented Tunisia's early recognition of Mauritania whereas Algeria was antagonized by Tunisia's own claims to portions of the Algerian Sahara. See Le Monde, October 15, 17, 20–21, 22, 25, and November 6, 1963.

12 The New York Times, October 6, 1963; and Le Monde, October 12 and 19, 1963.

13 Le Monde, October 8 and 16, 1963.

14 The New York, Times, October 15, 1963; The Times (London), October 21, 1963; and Le Monde, October 22, 1963. For the text of the Moroccan reservation see Maghreb (Paris), 03–04 1964 (Vol. 1, No. 2), p. 12Google Scholar.

15 For the text see Le Monde, November 1, 1963.

16 OAU Document ECM/Res. 1 (I). See also The Observer, November 17, 1963, and Le Monde, November 17–18, 1963.

17 Le Monde, February 21, 1964. For details of the demilitarization agreement see Le Monde, March 10, 1964.

18 Le Monde, April 26–27, 1964.

19 OAU Document CM/Res. 18 (II).

20 Le Monde, May 13 and 26, 1964.

21 Le Monde, July 17, 1964.

22 OAU Document CM/Res. 37 (III).

23 OAU Document CM/Res. 53 (IV).

24 OAU Document AHG/Res. 32 (II).

25 The New York Times, May 21, 1966; Le Monde, May 27 and 29–30, 1966, October 21, and November 10, 1966; Africa Research Bulletin, 07 1966 (Vol. 3, No. 7), pp. 568–569Google Scholar; and Maghreb Digest (Los Angeles), 07–08 1966 (Vol. 4, Nos. 7–8), p. 92Google Scholar

26 For some recent discussion of the background to the Somali problem see Drysdale, J., The Somali Dispute (London: Pall Mall Press, 1964)Google Scholar; Touval, Saadia, Somali Nationalism (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1963)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lewis, I. M., “Pan Africanism and Pan Somalism,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 06 1963 (Vol. 1, No. 2), pp. 147–161CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Castagno, A. A., “The Somali-Kenyan Controversy,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 07 1964 (Vol. 2, No. 2), pp. 165–188CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Mesfin Wolde Mariam, “The Ethio-Somalian Boundary Dispute,–219.

27 UN Document S/5536.

28 The New York Times, February 10, 1964.

29 The following account is based on the unpublished summary record of the Second Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, held in Dar es Salaam, on February 12–15, 1964.

30 The Times (London) and Le Monde, 02 13, 1964Google Scholar.

31 UN Document S/5542.

32 UN Documents S/5557 and S/5558.

33 OAU Document ECM/Res. 3 (II).

34 OAU Document ECM/Res. 4 (II).

35 The Observer and The New York Times, February 16, 1964. Following the Council of Ministers meeting other African states, including Ghana, Morocco, and Tanganyika, also tried to mediate in the dispute. (See Le Monde, February 20 and 25, 1964.)

36 The account which follows is based on the unpublished summary record of the Second Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, held in Lagos on February 24–29, 1964.

37 OAU Document CM/Res. 16 (II).

38 OAU Document CM/Res. 17 (II).

39 The full text of the communiqué was published in the OAU Review, 06 1964 (Vol. 1, No. 1), pp. 40–41Google Scholar.

40 An agreement to this effect was reached between the Somali, Ethiopian, and Kenyan representatives in the presence of the Provisional Secretary-General. For the text see The Somali Republic and the Organization 0f African Unity (Mogadishu, Somalia: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1964), pp. 39–40Google Scholar.

41 Ibid., pp. 25–27.

42 Unpublished summary record of the Third Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, held in Cairo on July 13–17, 1964.

43 Africa Research Bulletin, 03 1965 (Vol. 2, No. 3), pp. 256–257Google Scholar.

44 Africa Research Bulletin, 10 1965 (Vol. 2, No. 10), p. 381Google Scholar. The agreement is not being observed.

45 East African Standard, December 14 and 15, 1965.

46 Africa Research Bulletin, 01 1965 (Vol. 2, No. 1), pp. 227–228Google Scholar.

47 Le Monde, September 18–19 and October 12, 1966; and Africa Research Bulletin, 09 and 10 1966 (Vol. 3, Nos. 9 and 10), pp. 618–619 and pp. 641–643Google Scholar.

48 This account is based on Le Monde, November 1, 5, and 10, 1966, and the news bulletins of Agence France Presse.

49 See Ghana Today (published by the Information Section of the Ghana Office), London, 07 5, 1961Google Scholar.

50 The following account is based on the unpublished summary record of the Third Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, held in Cairo on July 13–17, 1964.

51 For the text of the President's message see Conférence des Chefs d'Etat ct du Gouvernement de I'OVA, Texte des Discours Prononcés a la Conference, Le Caire 17–21 Juillet 1564 (Cairo: Administration de l'lnformation, 1964), pp. 231–233Google Scholar. See also Le Monde, June 30, 1964.

52 OAU Document AHG/Res. 19 (I).

53 President Yaméogo reportedly stated in this connection that President Nkrumah had already appointed an Upper Volta president to succeed him after his assassination. (See The Guardian, April 23, 1964.)

54 The account which follows is based on the unpublished summary record of die Fifth Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, held in Lagos on June 11–13, 1965.

55 Ghana Today, March 23, April 20, and May 4, 1966, and Africa Research Bulletin, 06 1966 (Vol. 3, No. 6), p. 549Google Scholar.

56 Interesting for their comments about border problems were also the speeches of the Emperor of Ethiopia, the Presidents of Dahomey, the Malagasy Republic, and Tanzania, the Prime Minister of Nigeria, and the representatives of the Ivory Coast, Somalia, and Upper Volta. The speeches are printed in Conférence des Chefs d'Etat.

57 Ibid., p. 229; and The Somali Republic and the Organization of African Unity, pp. 15–18.

58 lbid., p. 19.

59 OAU Document AHG/Res. 16 (I).

60 The Somali Republic and the Organization of African Unity, pp. 16–24. The Somali National Assembly resolution was adopted on the eve of die Conference of Nonaligned Nations, held in Cairo in October 1964. The Cairo Conference proclaimed in its resolutions the same principle of respect for existing frontiers but with some qualifications added. For die discussions in the Somali National Assembly and the comments of Prime Minister Abdirazaq Haji Hussein on the resolutions of die OAU and of the Conference of Nonaligned Nations see Somali News (Mogadishu), 10 2, 9, 16, 23, and 11 6, 1964Google Scholar.

61 The Somali Republic and the Organization of African Unity, p. 18.

62 See Emerson, Rupert, Self-Determivation Revisited in the Era of Decolonization (Occasional Paper No. 9) (Cambridge, Mass: Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 12 1964)Google Scholar. Of interest in this connection is also the joint communiqué issued by the Emperor of Ethiopia and the President of India on October 13, 1965, which, in the context of the Kashmir problem, declared the Emperor's support for “the principle that self-determination should apply only to colonial territories which have not yet attained their independence and not to parts of sovereign or independent states.”

63 See Wallerstein, Immanuel, “The Early Years of the OAU: The Search for Organizational Preeminence,” International Organization, Autumn 1966 (Vol. 20, No. 4), pp. 774–787CrossRefGoogle Scholar.