The OAU and Superpower Intervention in Africa

The worsening economic situation in Africa has focused the OAU's attention in the last few years on the continents financial and development crisis, including implementation of the Lagos Plan of Action, the dilemma of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s 'structural adjustments," the impact of the U.N. Program of Action for Africa's Economic Recovery and Development, and most recently the crushing debt burden. However, the OAU's foremost preoccupation during the sixties and seventies was with the threat to political sovereignty and African regional hegemony. Its insistence upon adherence to its Cairo resolution of 1964, that no adjustments should be made to national boundaries established at independence, while not always successful, proved to be a major deterrent to intra-African warring and political turmoil. Equally challenging to the OAU was the threat to African sovereignty and political stability from outside the continent. The interventionist tendency of ex-colonial powers was primarily a concern for maintaining markets and profits, the classic manifestation of neo-colonialism, which, however, is outside the focus of this discussion. Superpower involvement in the evolving movement for political freedom and economic development on the continent would prove to be a menace of equal danger. Looking back, it is axiomatic that this involvement of the superpowers in Africa was directly related to the aims and interests of the Cold War.