What goes around comes around!
Flash 1964 Cairo Egypt.
The conservatives first success in
obstructing the move towards
continental unity was achieved at the
OAU Cairo summit in 1964. It was at
this crucial conference that Nyerere,
the then President of Tanzania,
cunningly pushed through a
resolution which urged the OAU to
accept the colonial borders as the
permanent, recognized frontiers of
OAU member states. This move was in
collaboration with Emperor Haile
Selasie of Ethiopia who one year
earlier had annexed Eritrea, forcefully
including it within his brutal empire.
He was now seeking legitimize this
barbaric act through the OAU. The
underlying motive of the resolution
was to frustrate Nkrumah and his
radical Pan-Africanist ideals though
Nyerere claimed that that the
intention was to minimize border
conflicts in Africa. The resolution was
carried by a simple majority and
became a key binding of the OAU
Charter. Ironically, instead of
abolishing Africas primary malady of
disunity, the OAU encouraged it.