More remains to be done even as independent Africa turns 50

When Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Guinea President Ahmed Sékou Touré and President William V. S. Tubman of Liberia met Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie in 1957, they had a far-reaching conversation. And while they reveled in their newfound freedom, they wished all of Africa could unshackle the chains of colonialism. They consulted widely and helped found the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963.

The founding members allowed Liberia to host the first OAU conference, in Sanniqullie. Later the new umbrella body, which was a compromise between those that aspired for a confederation, sort of a United States of Africa and those who wanted each country to retain its independence and separate identity, agreed for the OAU to be headquartered in Addis Ababa capital of Ethiopia, one of just two African countries never to have been colonised (alongside Liberia).