Leaders of Liberia, Ghana, and Guinea issued the Sanniquellie Pledge, committing to work toward a Community of Independent African States—a key early step toward the later creation of the OAU.
Heads of state and government gathered in Addis Ababa for the conference that created the OAU, formalizing a continent-wide diplomatic framework for unity, decolonization, and interstate cooperation.
The Charter of the Organisation of African Unity was signed in Addis Ababa by 33 signatory governments (representing 32 modern states), creating the OAU and setting core principles including sovereignty, non-interference, and support for decolonization.
The OAU’s liberation-support work quickly took institutional form through meetings of the (African) Liberation Committee in Dar es Salaam, coordinating recognition and assistance for liberation movements (notably amid competing Angolan factions).
A group of African states pushed the UN Security Council to address Portuguese colonialism; UNSC Resolution 180 called on Portugal to recognize self-determination and end repression—aligning with early OAU anti-colonial diplomacy.
The OAU’s Council of Ministers met for its first ordinary session in Dakar, helping operationalize the new organization’s diplomatic machinery between summit meetings.
At its first ordinary session in Cairo, the OAU approved the protocol defining the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration, reinforcing the Charter’s commitment to peaceful settlement of disputes within an African framework.
The OAU adopted Resolution AHG/Res. 16(I) on border disputes, in which member states pledged to respect borders existing at independence—an influential doctrine for reducing interstate territorial conflict (with noted reservations by some states).
The OAU’s third summit in Accra reflected the organization’s shift from founding declarations toward regularized summit diplomacy, coordination on liberation questions, and managing post-independence interstate tensions.
UNSC Resolution 218 again demanded that Portugal withdraw military forces and negotiate toward independence in its African territories, complementing the OAU’s sustained diplomatic campaign against Portuguese colonial rule.
The Kampala summit took place during intensified liberation struggles in southern Africa and growing regional crises, illustrating how the OAU increasingly balanced anti-colonial solidarity with the challenge of preventing or containing interstate war.
The Monrovia summit period culminated in adoption of the Monrovia Strategy through the OAU Council of Ministers, articulating priorities for Africa’s economic development and integration that fed directly into the Lagos Plan of Action in 1980.
The Freetown summit closed the 1963–1980 arc of early Pan-African diplomacy: an OAU centered on decolonization support, non-alignment-era diplomacy, and managing sovereignty-sensitive cooperation among newly independent states.
Organisation of African Unity and Early Pan-African Diplomacy (1963–1980)
