The Organization of African Unity and Intra-African Functionalism

The Organization of African Unity was the product of a compromise between African statesmen who wanted political union of all independent African states and those who preferred functional cooperation as a building block toward the construction of an African sociopsychological community. As embodied in the Charter of the Organization of African Unity and put into operation, the inherent contradictions of the ideas, behaviors, and interests of member states, in conjunction with the dynamics of international politics, brought practically all efforts at functional cooperation to naught. In order to revamp Africa's commitment to functionalism, the Lagos Plan of Action was adopted in April 1980. But it remains to be seen how practicable it will be for Africans, relying on themselves, to achieve the goal of an African Common Market by the year 2000, as envisaged in the plan.