"We welcome to Ethiopia in Our name and in the
name of the Ethiopian Government and people, the Heads of State and
Government of independent African nations who are today assembled in
solemn conclave in Ethiopia's capital city. This conference without
parallel in history, is an impressive testimonial to the devotion and
dedication of which we all partake in the cause of our mother
continent and that of her sons and daughters. This is indeed a
momentous and historic day for Africa and for all Africans.
"We stand today on the stage of world affairs,
before the audience of world opinion. We have come together to assert
our role in the direction of world affairs and to discharge our duty
to the great continent whose two hundred and fifty million people we
lead. Africa is today at mid-course, in transition from the Africa of
yesterday to the Africa of tomorrow. Even as we stand here we move
from the past into the future. The task on which we have embarked, the
making of Africa will not wait. We must act, to shape and mould the
future and leave our imprint on events as they pass into
history.
"We seek, at this meeting, to determine whither
we are going and to chart the course of our destiny. It is no less
important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is
essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as
Africans.
"This world was not created piecemeal. Africa was
born no later and no earlier than any other geographical area on this
globe. Africans, no more and no less than other men, possess all human
attributes, talents and deficiencies, virtues and faults. Thousands of
years ago, civilisations flourished in Africa which suffer not at all
by comparison with those of other continents. In those centuries,
Africans were politically free and economically independent. Their
social patterns were their own and their cultures truly indigenous.
"The obscurity which enshrouds the centuries
which elapsed between those earliest days and the rediscovery of
Africa are being gradually dispersed. What is certain is that during
those long years Africans were born, lived and died. Men on other
parts of this earth occupied themselves with their own concerns and,
in their conceit, proclaimed that the world began and ended at their
horizons. All unknown to them, Africa developed in its own pattern,
growing in its own life and, in the Nineteenth Century, finally
re-emerged into the world's consciousness.
"The events of the past hundred and fifty years
require no extended recitation from Us. The period of colonialism into
which we were plunged culminated with our continent fettered and
bound, with our once proud and free peoples reduced to humiliation and
slavery; with Africa's terrain cross-batched and checker-boarded by
artificial and arbitrary boundaries. Many of us, during those bitter
years, were overwhelmed in battle, and those who escaped conquest did
so at the cost of desperate resistance and bloodshed. Others were sold
into bondage as the price extracted by the colonialists for the
"protection" which they extended and the possession of which
they disposed. Africa was a physical resource to be exploited an
Africans were chattels to be purchased bodily or, at best, peoples to
be reduced to vassalage and lackeyhood. Africa was the market for the
produce of other nations and the source of the raw materials with
which their factories were fed.
"Today, Africa has emerged from this dark
passage. Our Armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free continent
and Africans have been reborn as free men. The blood that
was shed and the sufferings that were endured are today Africa's
advocates for freedom and unity. Those men who refused to accept the
judgment passed upon them by the colonies, who held unswervingly
through the darkest hours to a vision of an Africa emancipated from
political, economic and spiritual domination, will be remembered and
revered wherever Africans meet. Many of them never set foot on this
continent. Others were born and died here. What we may utter today can
add little to the heroic struggle of those who, by their example, have
shown us how precious are freedom and human dignity and of how little
value is life without them. Their deeds are written in history.
Areas of Resistance
"Africa's victory, although proclaimed, is not
yet total and areas of resistance still remain. We name as our first
great task the final liberating of those Africans still dominated by
foreign exploitation and control. With the goal in sight, and
unqualified triumph within our grasp, let us not now falter of lag or
relax. We must make one final supreme effort, when so much has been
won that the thrilling sense of achievement has brought us near
satiation. Our liberty is meaningless unless all Africans are free.
Our brothers in the Rhodesias, in Mozambique, in Angola, in South
Africa cry out in anguish for our support and assistance. We must urge
on their behalf their peaceful accession to independence. We must
align and identify ourselves with all aspects of their struggle. It
would be betrayal were we to pay only lip-service to the cause of
their liberation and fail to back our words with action. To them we
say, your pleas shall not go unheeded. The resources of Africa and of
all freedom-loving nations are marshaled in your service. Be of good
cheer, for your deliverance is at hand.
"As we renew our vow that all of Africa shall be
free, let us also resolve that old wounds shall be healed and past
scars forgotten. It was thus that Ethiopia treated the invader nearly
twenty-five years ago, and Ethiopians found peace with honour in this
course. Memories of past injustice should not divert us from the more
pressing business at hand. We must live in peace with our former
colonisers, shunning recrimination and bitterness and forswearing the
luxury of vengeance and retaliation, lest the acid of hatred erode our
souls and poison our hearts. Let us act as befits the dignity which we
claim for ourselves as Africans, proud of our special qualities,
distinctions and abilities. Our efforts as free men must be to
establish new relationships, devoid of any resentment and hostility,
restored to our belief and faith in ourselves as individuals, dealing
on a basis of equality with other equally free peoples.
"Today, we look to the future calmly, confidently
and courageously. We look to the vision of an Africa not merely free
but united. In facing this new challenge, we can take comfort and
encouragement form the lessons of the past. We know that there are
differences among us. Africans enjoy different cultures, distinctive
values, special attributes. But we also know that unity can be and has
been attained among men of the most disparate origins, that
differences of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no
insuperable obstacles to the coming together of peoples. History
teaches us that unity is strength and cautions us to submerge and
overcome our differences in the quest for common goals, to strive with
all our combined strength, for the path to true African brotherhood
and unity.
"There are those who claim that African unity is
impossible, that the forces that pull us, some in this direction,
others in that, are too strong to be overcome. Around us there is no
lack of doubt and pessimism, no absence of critics and criticism.
These speak of Africa, of Africa's future and of her position in the
Twentieth Century in sepulchral tones. They predict dissention and disintegration among Africans and internecine strife
and chaos on our
continent. Let us confound these and, by our deeds, disperse them in
confusion. There are others whose hopes for Africa are bright, who
stand with faces upturned in wonder and awe at the creation of a new
and happier life, who have dedicated themselves to its realisation and
are spurred on by the example of their brothers to whom they owe the
achievements of Africa's past. Let us reward their trust and merit
their approval.
"The road of African unity is already lined with
landmarks. The last years are crowded with meetings, with conferences,
with declarations and pronouncements. Regional organisations have been
established. Local groupings based on common interests, backgrounds
and traditions have been created."
Goal Unity
"But through all that has been said and written
and done in these years, there runs a common theme. Unity is the
accepted goal. We argue about means; We discuss alternative
paths to the same objectives; We engage in debates about techniques
and tactics. But when semantics are stripped away, there is little
argument among us. We are determined to create a union of Africans. In
a very real sense, our continent is unmade; it still awaits its
creation and its creators. It is our duty and privilege to rouse the
slumbering giant of Africa, not to the nationalism of Europe in the
Nineteenth Century, not to regional consciousness, but to the vision
of a single African brotherhood bending its united efforts toward the
achievement of a greater and nobler goal.
"Above all, we must avoid the pitfalls of
tribalism. If we are divided among ourselves on tribal lines, we open
our doors to foreign intervention and its potentially harmful
consequences. The Congo is clear proof of what We say. We should not
be led to complacency because of the present ameliorated situation in
that country. The Congolese people have suffered untold misery, and
the economic growth of the country has been retarded because of tribal
strife.
"But while we agree that the ultimate destiny of
this continent lies in political union, we must at the same time
recognise that the obstacles to be overcome in its achievement are at
once numerous and formidable. Africa's people did not emerge into
liberty under uniform conditions. Africans maintain different
political systems; our economies are diverse; our social orders are
rooted in differing cultures and traditions. Further no clear consensus
exists on the "how" and the "what" of this union.
Is it to be, in form, federal, confederal or unitary? Is the
sovereignty of individual states to be reduced, and if so, by how
much, and in what areas? On these and other questions there is no
agreement, and if we wait for agreed answers generations hence,
matters will be little advanced, while the debate still rages.
"We should, therefore, not be concerned that
complete union is not attained from one day to the next. The union
which we seek can only come gradually, as the day-to-day progress
which we achieve carries us slowly but inexorably along this course.
We have before us the examples of the USA and the USSR. We must
remember how long these nations required to achieve their union. When
a solid foundation is laid, if the mason is able and his materials
good, a strong house can be built.
"Thus, a period of transition is inevitable. Old
relations and arrangements may, for a time linger. Regional
organizations may fulfill legitimate functions and needs which cannot
yet be otherwise satisfied. But the difference is in this: that we
recognise these circumstances for what they are -- temporary
expedients designed to serve only until we have established the
conditions which will bring total African unity within our
reach."
Action Now
"There is, nonetheless, much that we can do to
speed this transition. There are issues on which we stand united and
questions on which there is unanimity of opinion. Let us seize on
these areas of agreement and exploit them to the fullest. Let us take
action now, action which, while taking account of present realities.
nonetheless constitutes clear and unmistakable progress along the
course plotted out for us by destiny. We are all adherents, whatever
our internal political systems, of the principles of democratic
action. Let us apply these to the unity we seek to create. Let us work
out our own programmes in all fields -- political, economic, social
and military. The opponents of Africa's growth, whose interests would
be best served by a divided and balkanised continent, would derive
much satisfaction from the unhappy spectacle of thirty and more
African States so split, so paralysed and immobilised by controversies
over long-term goals that they are unable even to join their efforts
in short-term measures on which there is no dispute. Let us give
neither comfort nor encouragement to these. If we act where we may in
those areas where action is possible, the inner logic of the
programmes which we adopt will work for us and inevitable impel us
still farther in the direction of ultimate union.
"What we still lack, despite the efforts of past
years, is the mechanism which will enable us to speak with one voice
when we wish to do so and take and implement decisions on African
problems when we are so minded. The commentators of 1963 speak, in
discussing Africa, of the Monrovia States, the Brazzaville Group, the
Casablanca Powers, of these and many more. Let us put an end to these
terms. What we require is a single African organization through which
Africa's single voice may be heard, within which Africa's problems may
be studied and resolved. We need and organization which will
facilitate acceptable solutions to dispute among Africans and promote
the study and adoption of measures for common defence and programmes
for co-operation in the economic and social fields. Let us, at this
Conference, create a single institution to which we will all belong,
based on principles to which we all subscribe, confident that in its
councils our voices will carry their proper weight, secure in the
knowledge that the decisions there will be dictated by Africans and
only by Africans and that they will take full account of all vital
African consideration."
Foundation For Unity
"We are meeting here today to lay the basis for
African unity. Let us here and now, agree upon the basic instrument
which will constitute the foundation for the future growth in peace
and harmony and oneness of this continent. Let our meetings henceforth
proceed from solid accomplishments. Let us not put off, to later
consideration and study, the single act, the one decision, which must
emerge from this gathering if it is to have real meaning. This
Conference cannot close without adopting a single African Charter. We
cannot leave here without having created a single African organization
possessed of the attributes We have described. If we fail in this, we
will have shirked our responsibility to Africa and to the peoples we
lead. If we succeed, then, and only then, will we have justified our
presence here.
"The organization of which We speak must possess
a well-cumulated framework, having a permanent headquarters and an
adequate Secretariat providing the necessary continuity between
meetings of the permanent organs. It must include specialized bodies
to work in particular fields of competence assigned to the
organization. Unless the political liberty for which Africans have for
so long struggled is complemented and bolstered by a corresponding
economic and social growth, the breath of life which sustains our
freedom may flicker out. In our efforts to improve the standard of
life of our peoples and to flesh out the bones of our independence, we
count on the assistance and support of others. But this alone will not
suffice, and, alone, would only perpetuate Africa's dependence on
others.
"A specialized body to facilitate and co-ordinate
continent-wide economic programmes and to provide the mechanism for
the provision of economic assistance among African nations is thus
required. Prompt measures can be taken to increase trade and commerce
among us. Africa's mineral wealth is great; we should co-operate in
its development. An African Development Programme, which will make
provision for the concentration by each nation on those
productive activities for which its resources and its geographic and
climatic conditions best fit it is needed. We assume that each African
nation has its own national development programme, and it only remains
for us to come together and share our experiences for the proper
implementation of a continent-wide plan. Today, travel between African
nations and telegraphic and telephonic communications among us are
circuitous in the extreme. Road communications between two
neighbouring states are often difficult or even impossible. It is
little wonder that trade among us has remained at a discouragingly
low level. These anachronisms are the remnants of a
heritage of which we must rid ourselves -- the legacy of the century
when Africans were isolated one from the other. These are vital areas
in which efforts must be concentrated."
Development Bank
"An additional project to be implemented without
delay is the creation of an African Development Bank, a proposal to
which all our Governments have given full support and which has
already received intensive study. The meeting of our Finance Ministers
to be held within the coming weeks in Khartoum should transform this
proposal into fact. This same meeting could appropriately continue
studies already undertaken of the impact upon Africa of existing
regional economic groupings, and initiate further studies to
accelerate the expansion of economic relations among us.
"The nations of Africa, as is true of every
continent of the world, had from time to time dispute among
themselves. These quarrels must be confined to this continent and
quarantined from the contamination of non-African interference.
Permanent arrangements must be agreed upon to assist in the peaceful
settlement of these disagreements which, however few they may be,
cannot be left to languish and fester. Procedures must be established
for the peaceful settlement of disputes, in order that the threat or
use of force may no longer endanger the peace of our continent.
"Steps must be taken to establish an African
defence system. Military planning for the security of this continent
must be undertaken in common within a collective framework. The
responsibility for protecting this continent from armed attacks from
abroad is the primary concern of Africans themselves. Provision must
be made for the extension of speedy and effective assistance when any
African State is threatened with military aggression. We cannot rely
solely on international morality. Africa's control over her own
affairs is dependent on the existence of appropriate military
arrangements to assure this continent's protection against such
threats. While guarding our own independence, we must at the same time
determine to live peacefully with all nations of the world."
Knowing Ourselves
"Africa has come to freedom under the most
difficult and trying of circumstances. No small measure of the
handicaps under which we labour derive from the low educational
level attained by our peoples and from their lack of knowledge
of their fellow Africans. Education abroad is at best an
unsatisfactory substitute for education at home. A massive effort must
be launched in the educational and cultural fields which will not only
raise the level of literacy and provide the cadres of skilled and
trained technicians requisite to our growth and development but, as
well acquaint us one with another. Ethiopia, several years ago,
instituted a programme of scholarships for students coming from other
African lands which has proved highly rewarding and fruitful, and We
urge others to adopt projects of this sort. Serious consideration
should be given to the establishment of an African University,
sponsored by all African States, where future leaders of Africa will
be trained in an atmosphere of continental brotherhood. In this
African institution, the supra-national aspects of African life would
be emphasized and study would be directed toward the ultimate goal of
complete African unity. Ethiopia stands prepared here and now to decide
on the site of the University and to fix the financial contributions
to be made to it.
"This is but the merest summary of what can be
accomplished. Upon these measures we are all agreed, and our agreement
should now form the basis for our action."
A World Force
"Africa has become an increasingly influential
force in the conduct of world affairs as the combined weight of our
collective opinion is brought to focus not only on matters which
concern this continent exclusively, but on those pressing problems
which occupy the thoughts of all men everywhere. As we have come to
know one another better and grown in mutual trust and confidence, it
has been possible for us to co-ordinate our policies and actions and
contribute to the successful settlement of pressing and critical world
issues.
"This has not been easy. But co-ordinated action
by all African States on common problems is imperative if our opinions
are to be accorded their proper weight. We Africans occupy a different
-- indeed a unique position among nations of this century. Having for
so long known oppression, tyranny and subjugation, who, with better
right, can claim for all the opportunity and the right to live and
grow as free men? Ourselves for long decades the victims of injustice,
whose voices can be better raised in the demand for justice and right
for all? We demand an end to colonialism because domination of one
people by another is wrong. We demand an end to nuclear testing and
the arms race because these activities, which pose such dreadful
threats to man's existence and waste and squander humanity's material
heritage, are wrong. we demand and end to racial segregation as an
affront to man's dignity which is wrong. We act in these matters in
the right, as a matter of high principle. We act out of the integrity
and conviction of our most deep-founded beliefs.
"If we permit ourselves to be tempted by narrow
self-interest and vain ambition, if we barter our beliefs for
short-term advantage, who will listen when we claim to speak for
conscience, and who will contend that our words deserve to be heeded?
We must speak out on major world issues, courageously, openly
and honestly, and in blunt terms of right and wrong. If we yield
to blandishments or threats, if we compromise when no honourable
compromise is possible, our influence will be sadly diminished and our
prestige woefully prejudiced and weakened. Let us not deny our ideals
or sacrifice our right to stand as the champions of the poor, the
ignorant, the oppressed everywhere. The acts by which we live and the
attitudes by which we act must be clear beyond question. Principles
alone can endow our deeds with force and meaning, Let us be true to
what we believe, that our beliefs may serve and honour us."
Prejudice Opposed
"We reaffirm today, in the name of principle and
right, our opposition to prejudice, wherever and in whatever form it
may be found, and particularly do we rededicate ourselves to the
eradication of racial discrimination from this continent. We can never
rest content with our achievements so long as men, in any part of
Africa, assert on racial grounds their superiority over the least of
our brothers. Racial discrimination constitutes a negation of the
spiritual and psychological equality which we have fought to
achieve and a denial of the personality and dignity which we have
struggled to establish for ourselves as Africans. Our political and
economic liberty will be devoid of meaning for so long as the
degrading spectacle of South Africa's apartheid continues to haunt our
waking hours and to trouble our sleep. We must redouble our efforts to
banish this evil from our land. If we persevere, discrimination will
one day vanish from the earth. If we use the means available to us,
South Africa's apartheid, just as colonialism, will shortly remain
only as a memory. If we pool our resources and use them well, this
spectre will be banished forever.
"In this effort, as in so many others, we stand
united with our Asian friends and brothers. Africa shares with Asia a
common background of colonialism, of exploitation, of discrimination,
of oppression. At Bandung, African and Asian States dedicated
themselves to the liberation of their two continents from foreign
domination and affirmed the right of all nations to develop in their
own way, free of any external interference. The Bandung Declaration
and the principles enunciated at that Conference remain today valid
for us all. We hope that the leaders of India and China, in the spirit
of Bandung, will find the way to the peaceful resolution of the
dispute between their two countries."
Nuclear Danger
"We must speak, also, of the dangers of the
nuclear holocaust which threatens all that we hold dear and precious,
including life itself. Forced to live our daily existence with this
foreboding and ominous shadow eve rat our side, we cannot lose hope or
lapse into despair. The consequences of an uncontrolled nuclear
conflict are so dreadful that no sane man can countenance them. There
must be an end to testing. A programme of progressive disarmament must
be agreed upon. Africa must be freed and shielded, as the
denuclearized zone, from the consequences of direct, albeit,
involuntary involvement in the nuclear arms race.
"The negotiations at Geneva, where Nigeria, the
United Arab Republic and Ethiopia are participating, continue, and
painfully and laboriously, progress is being achieved. We cannot know
what portion of the limited advances already realized can be
attributed to the increasingly important role being played by the
non-aligned nations in these discussions, but we can, surely, derive
some small measure of satisfaction in even the few tentative steps
taken towards ultimate agreement among the nuclear powers. We remain
persuaded that in our efforts to scatter the clouds which rim the
horizon of our future, success must come, if only because failure is
unthinkable. Patience and grim determination are requited, and faith
in the guidance of Almighty God."
Collective Security
"We would not close without making mention of the
United Nations. We personally, Who have throughout Our lifetime been
ever guided and inspired by the principle of collective security,
would not now propose measures which depart from or are inconsistent
with this ideal or with the declarations of the United Nations
Charter. It has withstood the test of time and has proved its inherent
value again and again in the past. It would be worse than folly to
weaken the one effective world organization which exists today and to
which each of us owes so much. It would be sheer recklessness for any
of us to detract from this organization which, however imperfect, provides
the best bulwark against the incursion of any forces which would
deprive us of our hard-won liberty and dignity.
"The African Charter of which we have spoken is
wholly consistent with that of the United Nations. The African
organization which We envisage is not intended in any way to replace
in our national or international life the position which the United
Nations has so diligently earned and so rightfully occupies. Rather,
the measure which We propose would complement and round out programmes
undertaken by the United Nations and its specialized agencies and,
hopefully, render both their activities and ours doubly meaningful and
effective. What we seek will multiply many times over the contribution
which our joint endeavours may make to the assurance of world peace
and the promotion of human well-being and understanding."
History's Dictum
" A century hence, when future generations study
the pages of history, seeking to follow and fathom the growth and
development of the African continent, what will they find of this
Conference? Will it be remembered as an occasion on which the leaders
of a liberated Africa, acting boldly and with determination, bent
events to their will and shaped the future destinies of the African
people? Will this meeting be memorialized for its solid achievements,
for the intelligence and maturity which marked the decisions taken
here? Or will it be recalled for its failure, for the inability of
Africa's leaders to transcend local prejudice and individual
differences, for the disappointment and disillusionment which followed
in its train?
"The questions give us all pause. The answers are
within our power to dictate. The challenges and opportunities which
open before us today are greater than those presented at any time in
Africa's millennia of history. The risks and the danger which confront
us are no less great. The immense responsibilities which history and
circumstance have thrust upon us demand balanced and sober reflection.
If we succeed in the tasks which lie before us, our names will be
remembered and our deeds recalled by those who follow us. If we fail,
history will puzzle at our failure and mourn what was lost. We
approach the days ahead with the prayer that we who have assembled
here may be granted the wisdom, the judgment and the inspiration which
will enable us to maintain our faith with peoples and the nations
which have entrusted their fate to our hands."
May 23rd 1963
