The OAU and Conflict Management in the Nigeria Civil War
CHAPTER ONE
OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
The founding of the Organization of African Unity in May, 1963 ended the rivalry among short-lived African regional organizations best known by the cities in which
they were established–Brazzaville, Casablanca, and Monrovia. ! But the Organization was to be menaced by tribal and territorial conflicts–the six wars among the OAU members, including the Algerian-Morroccan War, the Congo Uprising, the Sudanese Civil War, and the Nigerian Civil War, the Angola Crisis and the Somali-Ethiopian War.
Of all these wars, the Nigerian Civil War exposed the weakness of the Organization of African Unity as a peace solving organization and provided insight to the damage done to the Organization by maintaining a conservative attitude in the handling of Afircan problems. It was in this war that the two main principles of the OAU Charter were put to test: I the rivalry among the African countries. which led to the formation of the three regional blocs mentioned above is significant in two ways, First, it portended the luke-warm attitude developed towards Pan Africanism by African leaders in the French Community. Second, it marked the beginning of open controversy on the approat h towards African Unity.
CHAPTER TWO
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE FORMATION OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY (OAU}
Our meeting henceforth proceed from solid accomplishments. Let us not put off, to later consideration and study, the single act, the one decision, which must from this gathering if it is to have a real meaning. This conference cannot close adopting single African charter. We cannot leave here without having created a single African Organization. If we fail in this, we will have shirked our responsibility to Africa and to the peoples we lead. If we succeed, then, and only then, will we have justified our presence here. This is a part of a speech delivered by His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia when African heads of state and government met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to form, for the first time, an organization to unite Africa and portray African personality after many years of colonial exploitation.
But the concept of African unity did not start with the attainment of independence by African nations. To scholars of African politics, the concept of political independence for Africa emerged in the philosophies of Pan Africanism, the “African personality” and negritude, 1 proceedings of the Summit Conference of Independent African States, Vol. 1, Sec. 2, Addis Ababa, May, 1963, before suddenly erupting into freedom and then the formation of oau.?
Pan-Africanism started in Trinidad in 1900 under the sponsorship of Henry Sylvester Williams, who had been acting as advisor for the Bantus of South Africa and the Fantes of the Gold Coast to protect the customary tribal land from the greed of white settlers. He brought together a number of similarly minded Caribbean and American Negroes and Africans at a conference held in Westminster Hall, London, July 25-30, 1900.
The main aim of this conference was to start a movement for securing to all African races living in civilized countries their full rights, and to promote their business interests. This spirit was quickly developed in the U.S.A., when Dr. W. E. B. Dubois, one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), articulated the concept of Negro Rights in the NAACP Journal, Crisis. Marcus Garvey, who established a journal called The Negro World, also founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
The UNIA Declaration of Rights included the following statements:
2 Adekunle Ajala, Pan-Africanism Evolution; Progress and Prospects (New York, 1974), p. 8. SAL OB, Addona, The Organization of African Unity (Cleveland and New York, 1969), p. 42.
We believe in the freedom of Africa for the Negro people of the world, and by the principle of Europe for the Europeans, and Asia for the Asiatics, we also, Africa for the Africans both at home and abroad. Garvey proclaimed the existence of a Negro empire, conceived a Black Parliament, and announced that he was the Provincial Resident of a Racial Empire of Africa. When his utopian empire failed, he began preaching Black Zionism, and his goal became a return to Africa. His Black Star Line, which was to transport the American Negroes to Africa, was a huge success in terms of financing. But all ended with Garvey’s imprisonment for fraud in 1923.”
By 1919, the Pan-African spirit moved to France, where the Second Congress of the Pan-African Movement was held on February 19-21. In 1921, another Congress of Pan-Africanism was held in London, in which members passed resolutions calling for prevention of exploitation of Africa by foreign capitals, abolition of slavery and capital punishment, and for the right to education; finally, it insisted that “the natives of Africa must have the right to participate in the government as fast as their development permits.” The Fourth Pan-African Congress was held in New York in 1927. At this time, there were more delegations ‘from Africa. This forbid, p. 43. Jon Woronoff, Organizing African Unity (New Jersey,1970), p. 15.
CHAPTER THREE
THE CAUSE AND NATURE OF THE NIGERIAN/BIAFRAN WAR 1967-1970
Background
The crisis which finally led to the Nigerian/Biafran War in 1967 can be traced to the formation of political systems in Nigeria. Gabriel Almond, in Politics of Developing Areas, defines a political system as the interaction to be found in all independent societies which perform the functions of integration and adaptation (both internally and vis-a-vis other societies) by means of the employment, or threat of employment, of more or less legitimate physical compulsion, The political system is the legitimate, order-maintaing or transforming system in the society.
There are many political systems, such as Angola’s that are excluded by this definition where the question of legitimacy is the crucial political issue. Political systems threatened by revolution or war or colonial political systems where the functions of adaptation and integration are performed, even though the possession and the use of physical force by colonizing power is regarded as illegitimate by the subjects, are other examples. Almond’s definition can be applied to political parties in Nigeria.
CHAPTER FOUR
ATTITUDES AND ACTIONS OF OAU DURING THE WAR
The thirty months of war between Nigeria and Biafra were punctuated by peace conferences, all of which were abortive. Their failure surprised no one. The prerequisite of any succcessful peace conference is that both parties must be persuaded that the conflict is no longer susceptible to a military solution, and that a negotiate solution is not only desirable but in the long run inevitable.
Third parties wishing to see the conference successful, must do all in their power to bring both parties to that persuasion. For any party outside the conflict to profess a desire to see a peaceful solution on the one hand while providing one of the partners with a reason for failing to share that view is hypocrisy, As violence in Nigeria increased, so did the level of diplomatic activity surrounding the conflict. Evidence of this appeared throughout Africa, where preparations were underway for the Fourth Annual Summit of the Organization of African Unity scheduled to convene in Kinshasa from September 10-14, 1967.
CHAPTER FIVE
Conclusion
As is clear from its record, the Organization was always most successful in the first phase of action intended to maintain internal order, namely putting an end to active hostilities or intervention. (Of course, except the Nigerian case, where the OAU had no success from the beginning.} The Crisis could sometimes be kept from spreading, the fighting stopped and the parties brought to the conference table. However, when it came to the second phase, finding a solution to the problem and settling the dispute definitively, there was little or no success. No borders were drawn, reconciliation was urged but not imposed or accepted, subversion or intervention often resumed after initial temporary success in stopping it.
The OAU’s task was not finished as long as peace and harmony were threatened and a conflict could start again. What was far more serious was that the OAU had steadily decreased its efforts. Whereas it appointed a Commission to seek a settlement between Algeria and Morocco, there was nobody to study and inform the Organization of the Situation in the North of Africa. The OAU drew up an ambitious if impracticable peace plan for the Congo: a ceasefire, a reconciliation, a reminder to the warring parties of their pledges; the creation of a true Algerian presence. During the civil war in Nigeria, however, the OAU went to the other extreme and its presence had little or no significance.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
- Addona, A, F., The Organization of African Unity, New York, The World Publishing Company, 1969.
- Affia, George B., Nigerian Crisis, 1967-1970: A Preliminary Bibliography, Lagos, Yakubu Gowon Library, University of Lagos, 1970.
- Agulolu, Christian Chukwunedu, The Vital Issues of the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970, Berkeley, School of Librarianship, University of California, 1971.
- Ajala, Adekunle, Pan Africanism: Evolution, Progress and Prospects, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1973.
- Almond, Gabriel A. and James S. Coleman, Politics of Developing Areas, Princeton, New Jersey, 1960.
- Andemicael, Berhanykun, The OAU and the UN: The Relationship Between the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations, New York, Africana Publishing Company, 1976.
- Bozeman, Adda B., Conflict in Africa: Concepts and Realities, New York, Princeton University Press, 1976.
- Cervenka, Zdenek, The Organization of African Unity and its Charter, New York, Frederick A. Praéger Publishers, 1972.
- Claude Jr., Inis L., Swords into Plowshares: The Problems and Progress of International Organization, New York, 1958.
- Coleman, James, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism, Berkeley, 1963.
- Collis, Robert J., Nigeria in Conflict, London, Secker and Warburg, 1970.
- First, Ruth, The Barrel of a Gun: Political Power in Africa and the Coup d’etat, London, ATlen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1970.
- Forsyth, Frederick, The Making of an African Legend: The Biafran Story, Great Britain, 1977.
- Hanburg, H. G., Biafra: A Challenge to the Conscience of Britain, London, Britain Biafra Association, 1968.
- Hanna, William and Judith Lynne Hanna, Politics in Black Africa: A Selective Bibliography of Relevant Beriodical Literature, East Lansing, African Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1964.
