The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was set up in the wake of the rapid retreat of formal empire in Africa. Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was instrumental in leading the cause for greater international co-operation between the newly emerging sovereign states of Africa.

32 nations joined the organisation on its inception on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It sought to create greater economic and political unity amongst the African nations and end colonial exploitation of the African continent.

Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia and first chairperson of the OAU, delivered a speech at the second summit of the organisation in which he expressed the following:

“But perhaps more important than the individual events of these months has been the demonstrated vitality of the spirit of Africa, a vitality which has permeated every aspect of intra-African relations and has, in the short space of fourteen months, produced a basic and fundamental change in the African scene. During the past year, We paid State Visits to nearly a dozen African nations, and in the views which We exchanged with other African leaders We encountered a sense of purpose, of dedication, of vision, which, We are persuaded, found its genesis in the common acceptance of the ideal of African unity, in the common response to the unique challenge which modern Africa presents to each of us in the common crusade in which we are each enlisted.

It was in this spirit that Algeria and Morocco put aside their arms and agreed to negotiate the settlement of their border dispute. It was this spirit which motivated Ethiopia to call without pause or hesitation upon the Organization of African Unity when violence erupted last February on the common frontier with the neighbouring Republic of Somalia. It was to this spirit that African nations have responded to calls for aid from their brothers. It is this spirit which will sweep us forward to final, conclusive, glorious victory in the struggle to overcome the obstacles which still remain before us in the making of a united Africa.

It is in this, We believe, that the real triumph of Africa lies today. Economic development may lag; difficulties may be encountered in working out unanimously acceptable programmes and policies; temporary dissentions may interfere with harmonious relations between individual states. But so long as the spirit of Africa prevails and stirs within us, so long as we continue to think and work and act within the African context which we have created, imbued by the African atmosphere which surrounds and pervades us, We are confident that the goals we seek shall be attained.”

Source: Haile Selassie, ‘Speech at the 1964 O.A.U. Summit’, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Speech_at_the_1964_O.A.U._Summit