Stamina is what the new African Union needs

Africa has a new body that will define its future. After 38 years, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) will be replaced by the African Union (AU) heralding a new era in the black continent wrought by centuries of slavery, colonialism, civil wars and diseases.

A change of terminology which will cast a shadow on the continent and its population eager to depart in quest of new horizons and overcome a present haunted by famine, poverty, corruption, authoritarian regimes, civil war and AIDS.

The Africans, meeting in Lusaka in 2001, endorsed the establishment of a General Assembly, an Executive Council, an African Parliament, a Court of Justice and a Central Bank. The Durban summit is expected to lay the grounds for the union and declare the Organisation of African Unity history.

The African Union reflects a higher degree of political cooperation and a democratic atmosphere that will prompt African countries to put aside their differences and focus on the future with pragmatism. This dilemma might overshadow their set agenda.

Thus, Focusing on economic issues must be seen as a tactical move to enforce integration through common interest and do without the rhetoric of the past that has poisoned relations between African Nations.

The movement from the OUA to the AU requires a one-year transitional period during which the institutions, assets and debts of the OAU are to be transferred to the African Union.

The new organization will have to deal with the new reality and make sure to create a common currency, establish a fair balance of trade among the countries, and accommodate free market and democracy.

African countries waged wars against each other to impose or gain new territories, now that the African Union is entitled with the power to interfere in cases of fraudulent elections and intra-states conflicts, the question is to how much extent can Africans cope with this new reality?

In a continent where most of the countries are multi-nation states ravaged by separatist movements and internal strife and religious wars, how will the Union overcome this obstacle and let ethnic tribes feel as being a one entity? But most importantly, do the Africans understand the complexities and implication of the AU when illiteracy rates are skyrocketing?

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan echoed the same concerns when he said: " this [the union] will require more stamina. It is not going to be easy to achieve."

Annan must have had in mind the very contrast between the utopian dream of a union and the harsh realities of the continent. How can the African boat depart when good governance, democracy, wars, diseases and ideological differences remain untackled?

During the last four decades leaders like Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Gaddafi and Nelson Mandela embraced the dream of union, and the rhetoric went on more vividly than ever.

Nigerian poet and writer and Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka once said; "a tiger doesn't shout its tigritude, it acts." Time has come for the African tiger to pounce, and match rhetoric with deeds.