ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to determine how the Organization of African Unity (OAU) functions in African politics. It explores how and under which conditions would the Organization be able to realize its objectives and to what extent would the various cleavages marking inter-African relations, and the OAU’s relations with other organizations, play a role in this. It was presumed that the kind of co-operation embodied by the OAU could be related to the configurations of power at the national level, in the sense that the Organization functions as a platform for Africa’s leaders and reflects the interests of state elites rather than the aspirations of the mass of African peoples. The ideology of Pan-Africanism constitutes a useful source of influence for the OAU which forms an organization with a low degree of institutional development and limited legal powers. It was thought that in the field of political co-operation the OAU enjoys more prestige than other African international organizations.
