Extracted from ‘The Arabs and Africa’ edited by Khair El-Din Haseb; published in 1984 by Croom Helm, London, for the Centre for Arab Unity Studies, Beirut, Lebanon Being the proceedings of a seminar co-sponsored by the Arab Thought Forum, held in Amman, Jordan 24-29 April 1983

The Role of the Arab Group in the Organisation of African Unity

Part V

Mohamed Omer Beshir

This paper is a study of the role of the Arab group, that is, the five North African countries (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) in addition to Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Mauritania
which are members of the OAU, and their involvement, either through the Arab
League and the OAU, or on a bilateral basis, in the shared issues and problems
concerning the African group in the OAU.  Due to the diversity of the issues and
the dimensions of relations between the institutions and member states of the
two organizations, I will focus on the issues directly related to liberation and
cooperation for economic progress.

The Facts and Major Characteristics of the Member States of the Arab League and the OAU

The total number of member states of the Arab League and the OAU is 63, all of which belong to the Third World.  Table 6.1 compares some of their characteristics with the European Economic Community
countries.  For instance, as regards per capita income - $720 as against $7,000
– we get a striking picture of the degree of economic backwardness of those
countries, despite the huge wealth which some of them own.  The differences
between the countries of the two groups are also manifested in political and
cultural characteristics since all of them are newly independent, have a high
percentage of illiteracy, and are mostly characterized by the absence of
democratic systems.

Compared with the other members of the OAU, the Afro-Arab countries are in the minority in terms of the number of states, populations and gross national products, but they
outstrip the former in terms of per capita income and average GNP.  On the other
hand, the Afro-Arab countries.

                                OAU Members     Arab League Members       Arab League/ EEC Members

                                                                Africa     Asia        Total      OAU Total            Members

No. of states                      50                  9          13              22                63                        9

Population (millions)        415                115     45              160              460                      260

Av. Pop. (millions)           8      13       3.5             7                   7.7                       30

GNP (billions of dollars)  195                85       135           220              330                      1830

Average GNP

(billions of dollars)           4     9.5      10               10               5                           203

Per Capita Income

(dollars)                              470                740     3000           1400           720                      7000

compared with the other members of the Arab League, are in the minority in terms of the number of  states, and have a much lower per capita income, while the former have a
larger population than the latter.

The Afro-Arab group can be divided into four economic categories:

(a)    With oil as major source of wealth (Libya).

(b)    With both agricultural wealth and oil wealth (Algeria).

(c)    With both oil and industrial wealth (Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia).

(d)   Less advanced, less industrialized countries (Sudan, Mauritania, Somalia, and Djibouti).

However, facts and characteristics are not sufficient criteria for assessing the real weight of each country.  Other factors should also be considered such as the standard of
education and the type of political and industrial system.  The military power
of each country, or group of countries, should also be
considered.

Each country has a complicated social complexion, and has relations with  countries outside its immediate circle.  Thus we have an overlapping network of relationships, which
is due to the lack, or even absence, of a clear identity in each country’s
constitution.  Mauritania’s constitution, for example, issued on 20 May 1961
before the establishment of the OAU (in 1963), does not mention Africa at all,
while the constitution of Somalia, which is similar to Mauritania’s mentions
Africa only once in its preamble.  The Libyan constitution, in the last
paragraph of its second article says: ‘The province of Libya is a part of
Africa.’  But the Sudanese constitution says in its first article that ‘the
Sudan is part of the Arab and African entities’.  In its second article, the
Algerian constitution states that ‘Algeria is an inseparable part of the Arab
West, the African world and Africa’.  The Tunisian constitution mentions in its
preamble that ‘Tunisia belongs to the Arab family, in cooperation with the
African peoples for building a better future, and in cooperation with all the
struggling peoples’.

Despite deliberations on the present Egyptian constitution, a controversy over Egypt’s African identity arose.  Some suggested that it should include an article
confirming this identity and Egypt’s commitment to African unity, but this was
not approved and the constitution was issued without any mention of Africa. 
Morocco is the only one of this group whose constitution stipulates, in the
second paragraph of its preamble, a commitment to work for African unity, and
emphasizes that it is an African state with African unity as one of its goals. 
It is noteworthy here that the Moroccan constitution, while stressing its
African identity and unity, does not mention that Morocco is part of the Arab
nation, nor refer to its commitment to Arab unity, although it states that
Morocco is part of the Arab West.

Thus there is a lack of clarity of identity in each of the Arab, African or Afro-Arab countries of this group.

Overlaps and Contradictions in Afro-Arab Relations

The relations between the Afro-Arab group and the rest of the continent are not new.  Firm and old relations have been established and expanded throughout history due to a number of objective
factors, such as geographical proximity, continuous migrations, mixed marriages,
and the spread of Islam.  Then came the common experience of subjection and
resistance to European colonialism, and the political, economic and social
similarities which resulted.  This interaction, which lasted for centuries and
is still going on, led to the mixing of populations and thus the establishment
of strong ties between them, which none of them can esily evade.  Their
destinies and futures are thus the same.

Furthermore, the relations between the Afro-Arab group and the rest of Africa, on the one hand, and the Asian Arab group, on the other, are also old, with roots going back to
pre-Islamic times before the migration of the Arabs to this part of the world,
and they cannot be evaded or ignored, since they are extremely effective. 
However when we talk about the overlapping of relations in these three arenas or
circles, we should not ignore two important facts:

1. Each of these countries has its own issues and problems and its own aspirations and goals, which it takes into consideration in determining or planning its relations with other countries.
   
2. Each country has relations with other parties, regional or international, which should not be excluded in the context of its relations with other countries.

These considerations, which fit into what may be called ‘national interests’, besides the objective considerations alluded to earlier, make the study of Arab,
Afro-Arab and African relations rather difficult, but not impossible, at least
for those who live their daily lives among them.

It is not correct to argue that Afro-Arab cooperation, whose major power base is the Afro-Arab group, has failed, as some claim, despite all the negative factors
which accompanied it.  Nor is it correct to say that some Afro-Arab countries
focus on their relations with Africa ‘at the expense of inter-Arab interaction’,
as the working paper in preparation for this seminar maintained and described as
‘serious’.  I cannot see why it is serious, since relations between the
Afro-Arab countries and the rest of the continent are natural ones.  I cannot
think of any Third World group of countries more qualified to cooperate with the
African group than the Afro-Arab countries.  What this leads or amounts to is
that there is a contradiction between Arab unity and African unity, and
subsequently that priority should be given to the relations between the
Afro-Arab countries and the Asian Arab ones.

The Arab Unity and African Unity Movements

Although relations between Arab and African countries, mentioned above, have always been strong and even though the circumstances in which each of the African League,
the Arab League and Islamic League movements came about were similar, the
rapprochement and meeting between these three movements did not take
shape before the end of the Second World War.  This, in my opinion, is because
the Islamic League movement did not at the outset have contacts with Africa’s
Muslims, due to the tight control by the colonial powers on African Muslim
countries and their suppression of any Islamic movement that would have
threatened their interests in any way.

Another reason, I think, is that the African League movement was essentially preoccupied with sub-Saharan Africa and African unity meant, to many of its founders, the
unity of only this part of the continent.  Its concern for the Negro Africa,
or for the African of Negro descent, predominated over its concern for other
Africans.  On the other hand, the Arab League movement was, at its inception
and until recently, inhibited by the narrow concept of nationalism and had a
rather chauvinistic or idealistic vision.

However, these three movements were not totally isolated from each other.  Some of their leaders used to attend anti-colonialist international conferences in Europe,
such as the 1929 Brussels Conference of the Oppressed Peoples, which was
attended by delegates of more than 143 Asian, African and Arab organizations. 
The outcome of this first conference was the establishment of an
anti-colonialist front among whose members were Nehru, Ho Chi Minh, Sun Yat-sen,
George Padmore and Masali al-Hajj (from Algeria) and Mohamed Hafez Ramadan (from
Egypt).

Mohamed Ali Dosi was among the important figures who participated in creating connections between the African League and the Arab League movements.  In 1912 he published the
African Times and Orient Review.  He came from Nubia and his mother was
from Darfour (Sudan).  He lived first in Egypt, then went to France after
Urabi’s revolt, and then to Britain, where he worked in the theatre and met the
founder of the African League movement, Du Bois, who encouraged him to issue
this magazine.  He was also a friend to Garfi and Ezikwe of Nigeria.  The
magazine, which continued until 1919, was the only one which reported news of
African and Asian countries and was open to writers from these countries, such
as the Egyptian leader, Mustafa Kamel.  The Egyptian nationalist movement was
from the outset supported by the African League movement thanks to these
conferences and encounters between leaders of nationalist movements in Africa
and Asia and the Arab countries, especially educational institutions, such as
the Sorbonne in France and the Institute of Indian Studies in England, which was
headed by Krishna Menon.  This made the fifth conference of the African  League
movement, held in Manchester in 1945, even more representative than previous
ones.  Among those who attended it were Nkrumah, Kenyatta, and Yacoub Othman
from Sudan.  But it was not attended by any delegates from Egypt and other Arab
countries.

The Arab League and Cooperation with Africa

 Afro-Arab relations developed after the establishment of the Arab League in 1945.  Although its charter did not explicitly mention anti-colonialism, the League Council passed a resolution on
sending a representative to the independence negotiations then under way between
France, Syria and Lebanon.  The League also pushed for the independence of
Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.  Due to circumstances and limited
resources, the League’s efforts were limited to Arab liberation movements.  But
on the question of Sudan, the project of union with Egypt did not receive much
support from other League members because some Sudanese were opposed to it at
the time.  The League started to be interested in African liberation
movements only after the victory of the 1952 Egyptian
Revolution.

The July Revolution and Africa

The July Revolution, under Nasser’s leadership, was undoubtedly a major landmark in the history of Afro-Arab relations.  This was because the Revolution, contrary to
what the leaders of the Egyptian nationalist movement said before it, emphasized
Egypt’s African identity in cultural and political fields and established close
relations with the African and Asian liberation movements following the Bandung
Conference and encounters with the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and
other Third World countries.  Furthermore, this revolution had another positive
effect, namely the creation of a strong sense of self-confidence amongst the
Arabs and the Africans, which in turn lent momentum to liberation movements in
Africa and other Third World countries and made Egypt a sort of pilgrimage spot
visited by the leaders of these movements to receive diplomatic, political and
material support for their movements.  Besides the achievements of this
Revolution, the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the nationalization of
the Suez Canal, presented a wonderful example to those peoples of the fact that
the West no longer had a monopoly of knowledge, weapons and power.  In this
sense Mr Fayek wrote: ‘When the Egyptian Revolution steered Egypt toward Africa,
it did not impose anything strange on the Egyptian character.  Rather, it was a
discovery of its true character, revealing its African face, which had been
hidden for some time.  From that point on, Egypt became the most effective
country in the region in Afro-Arab relations, given its history, location,
economic, diplomatic and international activities.

The new consciousness of Egypt’s African identity, besides its Arab and Islamic identity, was reflected in its foreign policy, and in the Arab League’s policy
of directing Arab delegations to the UN to support the cause of independence for
African countries.  Both the 1955 Bandung Conference and the 1956 Tripartite
Aggression against Egypt gave momentum to Afro-Arab cooperation in general and
to Egyptian-African relations in particular.  Although the Bandung Conference
was attended by delegates of only 29 African and Asian countries (some of which
were still at the stage of self-government, like Sudan and Ghana), besides
observers from African liberation movements and the Arab organization for
Palestine, it increased Egypt’s faith in the potential for realizing the African
goal of eliminating colonialism.  The Tripartite Aggression demonstrated to the
Arabs, the Africans and the whole world, that Israel is part of the imperialist
camp.  In 1957, the Arab League Council passed a resolution consolidating
Afro-Arab relations and in 1958 it urged the member states to support Cameroon’s
independence.  In 1959 it passed a resolution supporting all freedom causes and
calling for cooperation with African countries, most of which were on their way
to independence.  In August 1960 the Council passed the following
resolutions:

1. Welcoming the newly-independent African states.
2. Supporting the efforts of African states to consolidate their independence and forestall foreign threats against them.
3. Opting for complete cooperation with African states in economic, social and cultural fields.
4. Granting African countries scholarships and exchanging teachers and technical experts with them.
5. Asking Arab chambers of commerce to send economic missions and financiers, industrialists, merchants and farmers to establish contacts in African countries for the purpose of coordination and cooperation between the
   Arab and African countries in these fields.

The Standing Committee of Arab information ministers at the League issued a number of important recommendations between 1957 and 1960 on Arab relations with African
and Asian countries and on protecting the interests of Arab communities in
Africa.  It also recommended that the Arab states elevate their diplomatic
representation in Africa, especially in countries where there were large Arab
communities.

In March 1967 the Arab League Council declared the support of its members for African liberation movements and the League’s solidarity with OAU in the interest of the
Arab and African peoples.

These resolutions reflected the growing consciousness of the need for Afro-Arab cooperation to realize liberation causes, especially the Palestinian cause. 
However, most of them were not carried out by the member-states, except for
Egypt which was the most enthusiastic of them and the one most able to implement
them within the limits of its resources.

The Egyptian press, especially from the late 1950s until the early 1970s, contributed greatly to the creation of a public opinion supportive of African causes, both inside
and outside Egypt, while encouraging some journalists to specialize in African
affairs by forming modern archives and establishing contacts with African
embassies in Cairo.  These and other factors increased interaction between the
Afro-Arab and other African countries within the OAU, which since its
establishment in 1963 became the main focus of interaction in all its various
forms, despite the adjustments of the non-aligned
movement.