AU and The Future of Africa

The OAU, founded in 1963, has achieved the main objective for which it was established: the political emancipation of all African peoples from under the yoke of the colonial rule and bondage of racist regimes and apartheid. The challenges before the AU, which emerged in July 2002, are probably more complex, involving the liberation of Africa from a new form of subjugation: poverty, external debt and all manner of problems of development. These are the problems confronting African states as the continent grapples with the challenges of the 21 st century.