What's in a name?

The OAU successfully rallied African countries in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid. But the newborn African Union fights for the continent's very survival, writes Gamal Nkrumah from Lusaka
Amid much fanfare, African heads of state and government assembled at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in the heart of the leafy Zambian capital Lusaka, to announce the birth of the African Union (AU) which now replaces the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
The AU's charter provides for a more powerful executive, a continental parliament, a central bank, a court of justice and a single currency modelled on the European Union. However, it falls far short of the fast-track integration plan originally proposed at the last OAU summit in the Togolese capital, Lome, in May 2000. Critics say that the AU is still a loose club of African presidents and lament the lack of active participation by African civil society.
At the OAU summit parallel NGO meeting which took place also in Lusaka, delegates warned that participation by African NGOs in the formation process of the AU was minimal. South African Human Rights Commission Chairman Barney Pityana wondered why the AU should be modelled on the EU. He regretted that there was no consultation or referendum to allow ordinary Africans to have a say in the decision-making process leading to the AU.
Instability and conflict prevail in Africa because human rights have been violated and democratic principles changed at will, Pityana said.
Ordinary Zambians watched the official OAU/ AU celebrations with ambivalent apathy. "I cannot tell you what the change in name implies," a passerby told Al-Ahram Weekly. Others shrugged their shoulders and explained that they expect very little tangible results. This rather pessimistic view is shared by many Zambians who appear to have been far more interested in the political controversy surrounding the recent brutal murder in mysterious circumstances of Paul Tembo, a leading Zambian opposition figure and deputy national secretary of the former Zambian ruling party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
Zambian police securing the visiting delegates at Mulungushi international centre clashed with mourners and supporters of the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) who accuse host President Frederick Chiluba of murdering Tembo. The sight of the protesters fighting running battles with the police marred celebrations of the AU and was an embarrassment to Chiluba, who took things in his stride.
"The honour you have bestowed on Zambians to carry the OAU baton at the threshold of its transformation into the African Union, is a clear manifestation of the confidence you have in me personally, and in the people of this country," President Chiluba told the visiting dignitaries. Chiluba praised the founding fathers of the OAU, including late President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, the propagator of African unity, Egypt's late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, and the first president of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda, who was present at the conference.
However, Chiluba warned Africans to make a "choice towards peace, stability, unity, tolerance and reconciliation or face relegation into unending conditions of insecurity, hate, discord and total oblivion."
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, addressing the 37th ordinary session of the OAU in Lusaka, said that conflicts in Africa were the result of "misguided leadership." Without conflict resolution, no amount of aid and trade, assistance and advice would make a difference, Annan said.
Amara Essy of the Ivory Coast was appointed as the new AU secretary-general. Essy replaces Salim Ahmed Salim who served as OAU secretary-general for the past 12 years. Like his predecessor, Essy is known as a consensus builder.
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