4.3 Organization of African Unity (OAU)

Born 1963 (Addis Ababa — the independence wave's continental union), HQ AddisAbaba (later the AU Commission's seat).Composition: the African states' near-totality (the apartheid-era exclusions; today's 55-member succession). Organs: the Assembly of Heads ofState and Government (the annual summit), the Council of Ministers, the LiberationCommittee (the decolonisation's organ), the General Secretariat, the mediation-and-commission machinery. Functions: the decolonisation (the sacred trust — the liberation movements' recognition: the OAU's founding achievement), the sovereignty's sanctuary (the non- interference doctrine — the borders' inviolability inherited from the colonial map: the OAU's conservative peace), the development charters (the Lagos Plan's aspirations), the mediation record's mixed ledger. The transition: the African Union (2002 — the Durban launch; theSirte Declaration's product) — the OAU's successor, the "never again" of the genocides and the conflicts: the right to intervene (the Peace and Security Council — the AU's break with pure non- interference), the development agenda (NEPAD, Agenda 2063), the continental free-trade area (AfCFTA — the world's largest by membership at its formation). The exam's framing: the OAU's sovereignty-conservation vs the AU's intervention-and-integration — the African continental experiment's two ages.