Pan-Africanism

On Saturday, 10 April 2021, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe delivered the 8th Lecture in the ongoing Guest Lecture Series of the Afronomicslaw Academic Forum. The title of Professor Akinkugbe’s presentation was “The African Continental Free Trade Area in the Shadow of Contending Visions of Pan-Africanism.” The Lecture was based on his forthcoming book chapter entitled “A Critical Appraisal of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.” Prof. Akinkugbe’s main argument was that although the AfCFTA has been referred to as a pan-African trade agreement, it is unclear what that means since pan-Africanism is subject to different interpretations.

April 8, 2021

The Afronomicslaw.org Academic Forum invites you to join their next guest lecture series.

Guest Speaker: Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Assistant Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University

Date: Saturday April 10, 2021

Time: 5:00 - 7:00pm East African Time.

The question of whether decolonisation stalled in the Global South has been addressed in some form for as long as the concept of decolonisation has been present in our world. As many educational institutions across the world, and especially in the Global North, begin to include ‘decolonising’ in their knowledge transmission agendas, connecting this question with the past, present and future of all aspects of the colonial project has never been more important. This short essay argues firstly that the question itself relies on certain presumptions that should be revisited. Secondly, the essay argues that the answer itself is complex and depends on where our gaze primarily lies – state or people.

In this symposium, our contributors react to Prof Taylor’s paper by interrogating embedded structures of knowledge generation and creation, economic development in Latin America, international law, disadvantageous investment agreements, and continental integration. In particular, the essays explore how these arrangements reshape traditional centre-periphery relations.

Over the past two decades, a number of factors have disrupted the Cotonou acquis. The opportunity to regenerate the ACP-EU relationship on new terms requires the parties to respond to challenges at the international, regional and domestic levels. At the global level, we have witnessed the declining influence of the USA and the EU on the international stage as emerging economies, like China and India, gain more economic and political power. As the EU’s leverage is not as significant as it was when the CPA was signed almost twenty years ago, multipolarity may present an opportunity for the ACP countries to diversify their partnerships and forge new relationships with non-EU countries.

The book traces the evolution of regionalism and regional integration on the continent, from the Organization of African Unity through to the African Union but, unlike earlier treatises on regionalism, Bashi Rudahindwa rightly places emphasis on the role of the legal framework. He draws comparisons with other regional economic integration projects: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Common Market of the Southern Cone (MERCOSUR), the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the European Union (EU), to argue for greater emphasis in the AU on capacity building, and the need to utilize law to support regulatory and institutional frameworks to facilitate trade and industrialization, and interventionist measures aimed at promoting structural transformation.