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[Odler]

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It is September 1. Summer is gone. At least, it already feels like it.

While most of us, in Europe and the Americas, throughout the sunny months, worried about our next barbecue, or about our shrinking retirement savings, an event of historical proportion took place in Durban, South Africa. The United States of Africa (or what is expected to become such) was born.

Fifty-three countries of the Mother Continent decided to pull their resources in common to create a political and economic merger at the image of the European Union. The boldest members want it to become a federation of states on the model of the United States of America, with one army, one currency, and one parliament.

The political drive behind this move is the desire of African leaders to wipe out poverty, endemics, and ignorance on a continent that leads by far on all three fronts.

While the neutral observer would expect the inaugural address of the African Union (AU), replacing a 40-year old ill-defined Organization of African Unity (OAU), to start with such a phrase as ?The state of the Union is poor?, Muammar Gaddafi, a leader of the movement, drew salvos by stating ?Africa belongs to the Africans! The land is ours!?

The tasks ahead for the new leaders look insurmountable. Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa and president of the Union, at the start, is dealing with a controversy on whether the government of Madagascar, originated from a coup d?etat, should be represented in the union. And what should he do with Robert Mugabe for his policy of land redistribution rejected by all the Western powers?

The Achille?s heel of the AU may also be the presence of Gaddafi among its most authoritative voices, and as one of its conceivers. The Libyan leader is widely seen as too close to international terrorism to benefit from the confidence and cooperation of the powers of the northern hemisphere, the ones with the money and the knowledge that the Union needs to thrive.

The problems of the Union are also internal. How would it prosper with so many wars between African countries, and so many fratricidal conflicts on the continent?

In any event, the first step was made in the right direction. One day, in not a so distant future, three large democracies may encompass most of the modern world: the Confederation of the Chinese Republics (mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong), the United States of Europe, and the United States of Africa.

Far behind, at least in population and geography, would come the United States of America.

Some Africans believe in this vision. Last July 9, the breast-naked dancers, the military parades, the roaring helicopters, the folkloric singers displayed in a stadium in Durban were there to show it to the world at large, and to the interested eyes of both Frederick de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, two men who know that miraculous does not mean? impossible.

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(OdlerRobert Jeanlouie, September 1, 2002)