The Archive

Address to the OAU Founding Conference

Speech

24 May 1963 · Addis Ababa, Ethiopia · Original language: English

Kwame Nkrumah 1909–1972

"Unite we must." Nkrumah's proposal for a continental union government at the founding of the OAU.

Unite we must. Without necessarily sacrificing our sovereignties, big or small, we can here and now forge a political union based on Defense, Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy, and a Common Citizenship, an African Currency, an African Monetary Zone and an African Central Bank.

— Kwame Nkrumah, Addis Ababa, May 1963 (African Union, summit speeches)

The speech's core warning, that "the struggle against colonialism does not end with the attainment of national independence," is the argument FedAfrica inherits. Every problem Nkrumah names, from fragmented markets to outside control of economies, is still on the continent's agenda.

Context

With thirty-two independent African states gathered to found a continental organization, Nkrumah argued that the moment demanded not cooperation but union: a continental government with a common foreign policy, defence, currency and central bank. The Casablanca group had pressed for political unity since 1961; the Monrovia majority preferred gradual economic cooperation. His proposal lost the argument, but remains among the most complete ever tabled at an African summit. The line often quoted as "We must unite now or perish" does not appear in the African Union's compilation, so we quote that text. (The title is an editorial description.)

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