| Summary/Abstract |
The idea that Africa, a continent shared by more than 50 states with unique histories, cultures and interests, could be more than the sum of its parts dates back at least as far as May 1963, when an emerging sense of a common African destiny led the leaders of free Africa to gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to create the Organisation of African Unity. Almost 40 years later, a similar feeling of pan-African identity led to the founding of the African Union (AU). A sense of continental solidarity can be seen in cultural products such as the poetry of Léopold Senghor and the songs of Miriam Makeba, and in the behaviour of African states in multilateral forums such as the UN General Assembly and the World Trade Organisation. The tendency for states to adopt and adhere to common African positions (as they did in the negotiations for the Sustainable Development Goals, the Bali round of World Trade Organisation negotiations and the Ezulwini Consensus on UN Security Council reform) reflects an understanding of – and a commitment to – a set of particularly African interests that are best pursued collectively rather than individually. The persistence of nationalistic rivalries among, and the pursuit of divergent policies by, African states is not necessarily evidence that pan-Africanism has no political merit or consequence, any more than differences in policies or the persistence of tensions among European nations represent an indictment of the idea of Europe. Rather, it merely demonstrates the complexity of African states’ foreign policies as they try to advance their interests both unilaterally, on the basis of their own national capabilities, and multilaterally, under the banner of African solidarity.
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