Over the last three, four years, the kind of transformation that Addis Ababa has gone through is, to say the least, spellbinding. Residents of Addis have been surprised in many ways because they could not figure out what was exactly happening. They did not have any idea of where it would begin and where it would end. There was a series of constructions that were to be landmarks of the city, especially from the point of view of tourists. Basically, these developments were intended to fill many gaps that the city had over the years since its foundation.
It is well known that Addis is a special city under many vests. It is principally the political capital of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, but at the same time, it is also the major economic and political centre of the country. Furthermore, it has become the centre of international bodies and agencies where they have extensive representation. The hundreds of diplomatic missions that are stationed in Addis are not meant only for Ethiopia but for the continent as a whole as well, and there are missions of countries that have adopted Addis as their headquarters and carry out the affairs they have with other countries from Addis. This is usually done to save further expenses by opening too many offices to take care of their interests in several other countries. But at the same time, it has also been found out that it is a better way of managing relations with multiple African countries, taking their principal residence in Addis, where they can very easily meet many diplomats and representatives of international organizations.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, has its headquarters in Addis and anything related to activities that relate to the economic developments in Africa starts here. Representatives who are stationed in Addis will find it easy and convenient to run their affairs here. They can easily find the officials of the body at hand and carry out whatever programs and plans they may have with the authorities who run the agency.
Addis is hence the huge diplomatic center in Africa where multiple meetings, conferences, and workshops are held every year. It is also the venue where heads of state and government meet regularly in their yearly summit to discuss and decide on the fate of more than a billion African citizens. It is easily the biggest diplomatic centre in Africa and rightly so. It is the seat of the African Union, and it was here that the first chapter of the African Union was written and signed. The Organisation of African Unity, OAU, the precursor of the current AUC, was founded here on May 25, 1963 thanks also to the initiative of leaders such as the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I who managed to convince the then African leaders to come to Ethiopia and sign the famous Charter of the OAU.
If Addis Ababa has become the kind of city that is currently considered a major international diplomatic hub, it is thanks to this initiative of the last emperor, who had a certain positive vision for his country and countrymen as well as Africans in general. This has been acknowledged by many African leaders themselves who have given credit to the Ethiopian leader who firmly believed in the unity of the continent to make the voice of millions as one and make it heard.
As he was the victim of aggression and could not exert any influence on the international scene, as many African countries were also suffering from the heavy colonial yoke, and as small African countries would practically have no voice in international affairs rather than just absorb whatever decisions are made by the world’s most developed and politically prominent countries, it was believed that the only way to match all those negative influences on Africa was only coming together under one umbrella and assert Africa’s interest in the international arena that matters most.
This year, on May 25th, Addis and all Africans will celebrate the sixty-second year of the foundation of the OAU/AU. It will present an occasion to see what changes have taken place during all these years in terms of the lives of Africans and their voice in the international arena. The world is not split into two major politico-economic groups as it used to when there was what was called the ‘cold war’, which was a result of the confrontation between the Soviet Union and its allies on the one side, and the United States and its partners on the other.
There was the UN, which was meant to sort of take care of the world so that conflicts are prevented or avoided or settled before they were to involve many subjects and bring the kind of catastrophe that the world wars have resulted in. The bad memories of the world wars were still vivid, and those conflicts may have been averted if there were a body that called for a common stand on the causes of the conflicts. It was definitely a failure of international diplomacy, also because there were no organisations that had the strength and authority of the current UN, even if it has been criticized for being toothless when things seemed to get out of control.
There are certain mechanisms that are meant to dilute the emotions of leaders of the world who might tend to be led to solve their issues through the use of force rather than engaging in peaceful and diplomatic manners. Whatever criticism may have been forwarded against the UN as a lame duck, it is, however, the right place and the only one where countries could make their views clear and possibly garner support for their intended plans at the international level.
More or less the same can be said of the African Union as the only legitimate body that can represent the interests of the continent’s more than a billion and two hundred million people, besides serving as the meeting point where African leaders discuss their own internal issues and seek ‘African solutions for African problems’. In fact, in the past, many inter-African hostilities were presented to the continental body to be dealt with, and important statements and explanations have been released by the body in the presence of all stakeholders. Many times, the discussions and talks held at the continental body have shed some critical light on the issues, and it was possible to settle certain contentions.
Many are heard criticizing that the continental body, just as the UN, is just a talking place without resolving the problems of the continent. The fact that it has no mechanism to effectively materialize its resolutions on the ground makes it a kind of ‘paper tiger’ to use the disparaging characterization of the international body by critics. But it must not be forgotten that with all their limitations and frailties, having the UN and the AU is at least the point of departure for negotiations or talks for any kind of initiative that may affect the world. Even if these bodies may not be as strong as many would like them to be, they can be places where any current burning issue could be presented to the world arena or the continental forum, and begin to be discussed by presenting the positions of all the parties involved.
At least when it comes to global issues such as climate change, these bodies exert their critical role in terms of campaigning for the search for solutions before it is too late. In the same way, huge armed confrontations are avoided thanks to the interventions of these bodies, even if there are many instances where these bodies have not been as effective as the circumstances may have dictated.
In the end, when it comes to the sovereignty issue of the member states, we find that countries are very jealous of their political independence. The only manner of influencing them to accept the rules of the international bodies has been the sanctions that could be imposed on them and the stigmatization and isolation of the countries in question until they show readiness to abide by the resolutions of the international body.
In the case of the African body, the only way it had shown its teeth was to cancel the country from the status of a member of the AU until it refrains from doing whatever wrong it may have committed. When there are forceful and ‘unconstitutional takeovers’ of governments in Africa, the AU immediately meets and decides to release a resolution that focuses on the issue and calls for reinstatement of the ‘status quo ante’ and presents their case peacefully in front of the august body.
For instance, when there were recent coups in certain West African countries, what the AU did was condemning the act and order the reinstatement of the legitimately elected government. But we have also seen that such calls have not always been heeded. And these precedents do not help face effectively other similar cases, and the influence and prestige of the international body risk of being eroded and becoming ineffective going ahead.
In any case, Africans still show willingness to discuss their problems at these fora in the fervent hope of finding solutions for their perennial problems of development, fair international trade conditions, and face the negative consequences of climate change that have been so disruptive of the lives of African subsistence farmers and cattle raisers.
The organisation also serves as a venue where to bring to the attention of the world any important development on the continent. Hence, both the UN and the AU may have their weaknesses, but it has been found out that their existence is better than not. What the world must do is trying and finding a better or stronger way of implementing the resolutions and recommendations of the bodies, and maybe restructure the bodies in the wake of newly emerging realities in the geo-political order.
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 21 MAY 2025
