Mzansi Afrika: Continental abbreviations

The Pan African Parliament, or PAP, is meeting at this very moment in Midrand, South Africa, till 2 December 2005. SABC News reports that one of the issues on the table is the creation of an African Court of Justice, destined to handle continent-wide human rights violations. Members of the African Union will first need to ratify protocols that define and address human rights issues. To date, only eight have done so. The PAP was

established in March 2004, by Article 17 of The Constitutive Act of the African Union, as one of the nine Organs provided for in the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 1991. The establishment of the Pan-African Parliament is informed by a vision to provide a common platform for African peoples and their grass-roots organizations to be more involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the continent. [Source]

Just at the time it was announced that the PAP would sit in South Africa, Fodder observed that "we're really starting to believe that the AU is actually going to work, it's slow going and often we seem to be taking as many steps backwards as we are forwards, but the bigger picture is looking rosy for the future of the AU." I want to believe that with all my might. Apart from a positive observation of the situation in Darfur, and a subsequent call to protect civilians as well, the PAP, and the AU, have been mainly lazying about.

For a good while now I've been intimately worried about the incessant creation of abbreviations on the continent. They cost money, and assure the comfort of only a few. Men and women, it may be true, who are dedicated to Africa and to Africans, but who remain caught in the system. It should be clear, one would think, that it is not abbreviations we need but the money that is being used to create them left, right and center. The quote above mentions nine organs, plus the PAP, plus the AU, plus the AEC, plus grass-roots organisations, and that is not nearly close to the actual number of past, present and future abbreviations on the continent.

A speech by Dr Gertrude I Mongella, President of the Pan African Parliament, states that PAP was created "to ensure the full participation of African peoples in the development and economic integration of the continent of Africa. [...] It is us who carry the aspirations of the peoples of Africa. [Source]" I want to believe that with all my might, too.

Mostly Africa has this article: African Union-- who pays?

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Mzansi Afrika

Blogging from Johannesburg, South Africa. Politics, Africa, globalisation, social justice, culture and whatever else takes my fancy

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June 2006

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