Where should I start? There is scant emotional colour in the African continent. Africa has a great window of opportunity. This should have been a time of celebration, but instead African leaders converging on the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the current African Union (AU), are focussing on the conflict zones and economic prospects. There is interest from investors, predominantly Asian. And, there are hardly any civil wars to speak of. A dystopian view of the continent is no longer in vogue. African leaders, however, are acutely conscious that the continent lags behind other continents in key development indicators. However, Africa made significant progress in the past two decades. The proportion of women parliamentarians in Sub-Saharan Africa is impressive and gender parity in primary school is fast improving. North Africa lags behind when it comes to gender parity and the representation of women in national parliaments. The divisions between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa have partly come about because of the Arab Spring. The latter point was especially well-made in Addis Ababa this week. There is no goodwill relied upon. Few Arab leaders were in attendance. Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika was conspicuously absent due to ill health. Algeria is one of the main financial backers of the AU. Indeed, five countries contribute disproportionately to the AU budget — Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa. This tension between the traditional and current practice of the AU and a future vision for a new Africa sets up intriguing tensions about what is happening in the corridors of power at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa and what is possible. Post-Muammar Gaddafi Libya is widely regarded as not as committed to the concept of African unity as the late Libyan leader. Egypt is perceived as being too wrapped up in its domestic concerns. And, is seen as being exclusively preoccupied with issues of Nile waters, much to the consternation of the far flung African countries of the western and southern regions of the continent. The supply of water to Egypt will give the Nile Basin countries, and in particular Ethiopia, the leverage they need to ensure that Egypt remains engaged with Africa. Observers of the Arab political agenda in Africa south of the Sahara cannot agree on what motivates them. Arab countries are embroiled in the ramifications of the Arab Spring. African countries south of the Sahara are not inclined to avoid the Arab uprisings hitting their own turf. Africa's apparent sense of well-being is a façade. African leaders are noted for their pugnacious tone, too. Everything Africa does these days is about expressing itself in new ways. A change of direction is under way. African Unity is a huge project, but alas, it was neither lavishly equipped in the past nor was it meticulously organised. In spite of impressive economic growth rates in recent decades, few African countries south of the Sahara will meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty rates and alleviating hunger and malnutrition by 2015. AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former South African foreign minister, needs to make things happen while Africa remains open to the very notion of African unity. She put it bluntly. “You can't ignore a billion plus people, but you can ignore five million people,” she was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with The Africa Report. “We should be able to drive from Cape to Cairo, go by train from Djibouti to Dakar,” she extrapolated. “There is no question that Africa is forging ahead in a positive direction, if we look at such indicators as economic growth, foreign direct investment and public investments by our governments,” Dlamini-Zuma expounded further. However, she did concede that the reliance in the past on foreign aid and donor organisations was the reason behind Africa's backwardness. “If you look at important documents like the Lagos Plan of Action, part of the reason we've not been able to implement these great initiatives was because we thought we could implement them through aid,” she summed up. Meanwhile, Dlamini-Zuma stressed that “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”, the two themes of the 50th anniversary celebration of African unity, could not be achieved without “collective political will” of African leaders. Furthermore, she argued: “women play a leading role in the AU's development plans, diplomacy and security work”. Whether her male colleagues will take her seriously is a different ball game altogether. It is a cause, though, she clearly relishes. Already, there are two women presidents in Africa — Joyce Banda of Malawi and Ellen Sirleaf-Jones of Liberia. Do women leaders make a difference? “The target of reducing extreme poverty by half has been reached five years ahead of the 2015 deadline [for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals], as has the target of halving the proportion of people who lack dependable access to improved sources of drinking water, and we have seen accelerating progress in reducing child and maternal mortality,” UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon. The precise role of women in African politics can be tough to pinpoint. Are women politicians meant to be their male counterparts' political proxies? Are they meant to make decisive political decisions on their behalf? Are African men ready to accept the feminisation of African politics? Whatever the future, women have talent and brains and guts. The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Darfur and South Sudan prove beyond doubt that women are the primary victims of conflict. They are raped and sexually harassed particularly in times of political instability and war. Indeed, rape has become an instrument of political intimidation and vengeance. Empowering women has become a priority for Africa. The promotion of gender parity is an absolute must. The African media has understandably been lukewarm about the anniversary. It is at last outperforming Latin America and Southeast Asia, even though in spite of the Arab Spring, North Africa still outperforms other parts of Africa. North Africa, too, is undergoing transmission. But, the position of women in predominantly Muslim Africa is fast deteriorating due primarily to the rise of political Islam. Africa's success should not be taken for granted. Militant Islamists constitute a threat to peace and stability in large swathes of the continent. How we Africans deal with militant Islamists is a question that most African leaders shy away from. Worse, scions of supposedly republican dynasties still rule much of Africa. Kwame Nkrumah is mentioned only in passing, rather odd I would say. Pro-Nkrumaists and anti-Nkrumaists have been staking out their sides of the debate for decades. The AU has rediscovered its reformist zeal. A robust defence of the AU's performance is unjustifiable. So is all gloom and doom? This suggestion is indeed paltry. Still, is Africa after half a century serious about African unity? The question has been asked time and again. And, the answer is invariably: not quite.
