The formation of the Organisation of African Unity was an epic event in the making of history.

Saturday the 25th of May 2013 is the most important day in the calendar of the history of our struggles for the liberation of the people of the African continent. The entire people of the continent and the world will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity. 

The formation of the OAU was an epoch making event that became a turning point in the history of our struggles for the liberation of the African continent. We celebrate the heroic struggles of our people against imperialism and colonial domination.

We therefore take this rare moment of the celebration of the 50th year anniversary of the formation of the OAU to salute the founding fathers of the African liberation struggles. Their indomitable contribution to the noble cause of our struggles for the liberation of our people from the yoke of colonial oppression and exploitation, will forever shape the future of the generations of man to come. 

We will be on the right side of history as we celebrate this day, to pay a special tribute to the young and most illustrious African intellectual, Kwame Nkrumah, who distinguished himself by drafting the historic declaration, addressed to the colonial people during the 5th Pan African Congress held in 1945 in the city of Manchester. This historic declaration about the colonial people reads as thus:

"We believe in freedom and the right of all peoples to govern themselves. We affirm the right of all colonial peoples to control their own destiny. All colonies must be free from foreign imperialist control, be it political or economic. 

The peoples of the colonies must have the right to choose their rulers, to elect a government without restrictions imposed by a foreign power. We say to all peoples of the colonies that they must fight with all means at their disposal for this purpose. The aim of the imperialists is to exploit you. 

By ensuring the right of the colonial peoples to self government, we are defeating the imperialist objectives. Thus, the struggle for political power by the colonized people is the first step and a prerequisite for achieving complete social, economic and political emancipation.

The 5th Pan African Congress calls on all workers and peasants of the colonies to organize themselves. Colonial workers must be in the frontline in the battle against imperialism.

The 5th Pan African Congress calls on all the intellectuals and the professionals of the colonies to take on their responsibilities. The long night is coming to an end. 

By fighting for union rights, the right to form cooperatives, press freedom, freedom of assembly, freedom to demonstrate or to go on strike, freedom to print and read the literature necessary for the education of the masses, you are simply using the appropriate means to win and maintain your freedom. At present there is only one road to effective action: organizing the masses".

Few years later during the most historic and memorable day of the 23th of September 1961, again Kwame Nkrumah, then the newly elected President of the republic of Ghana, the first african state to gain independence from colonial rule, conveyed the following profound and earthmoving revolutionary words before the United Nation General Assembly" 

I look upon the United Nations as the only organization that holds out any hope for the future of mankind. The United Nations must therefore face up to its responsibilities, and ask those who would bury their heads like the proverbial ostrich in their imperialist sands, to pull their heads out and look at the blazing African sun now travelling across the sky of Africa's redemption. 

The United Nations must call upon all nations that have colonies in Africa to grant complete independence to the territories still under their control. This is a new day in Africa and as I speak now, thirteen new African nations have taken their seats this year in this august Assembly as independent sovereign states. There are now twenty-two of us in this Assembly and there are yet more to come".

This unprecedented wave of nationalism and the fervent desire by the African people to be the architects of their own destiny, led to the formation of the OAU, now the AU, on the 25th of May 1963 in Addis Ababa. The formation of the OAU was an event in the making of history. It was the most decisive intervention ever to foster the unity, freedom and the socio economic prosperity of the African continent.

The celebrations of the fifty years of the formation of the OAU presents an opportunity to all of us to give a critical assessment of the challenges and the achievements of our struggles. We therefore appreciate the many years of glorious struggles which attest to the OAU as a genuine formation representing the wishes and aspirations of the people of the continent

The milestone achievements of our past fifty years of the formation of the OAU, is a confirmation that the African people are capable of building a solid foundation for their better future. Without fear of any contradictions, we confirm that the formation of the OAU, has laid a solid foundation that has over the years become a source of hope and inspiration to the people of the continent

The OAU has become a living monument and a testimony that unity is the only precondition for the success of our struggles over the centuries of imperialist and colonial oppression and exploitation. It has indeed become an effective weapon to forge the unity and common struggles of our people to define their future. 

We celebrate these great accomplishments against the wishes and aspirations of our adversaries. For many centuries European led colonialism dominated the socio economic terrain of our mother continent. Imperialism and colonial powers subjugated our people to severe human abuse and sufferings

We are encouraged by the determination of the people to reconstruct and develop their own continent. Our people are indeed determined to take forward the effort of our common struggles to eradicate the challenges of poverty, disease and underdevelopment ravaging the continent.

Our African continent has become the second growing economic region of the world. The scale of the development of the socio economic conditions of our people and the future prospects far surpasses most of the developed world economies. We have also accomplished tremendous progress in the arena of education, science and technology, and cultural revolution.

As a result of the relentless struggles led by our people, the balance of forces in the continent has shifted dramatically in favour of the progressive movement. The momentum of the struggles by our people to reverse back the domination of imperialism and neo colonialism has gained alarming proportions. 

As we celebrate these milestone achievements of the rich history of the struggles of our people, we again reiterate the revolutionary words of our founding father, Kwame Nkrumah, for the United Nations to call upon all nations that have colonies in the continent, to grant complete independence to the territories still under their control

True to his revolutionary commitment for the noble cause of the struggles for the liberation of the African people, true to his visionary leadership to make Africa a free liberated zone, almost all the countries of the African continent except one, have occupied their rightful place and seats in the august house of the United Nations General Assembly.

Therefore in memory of this outstanding leader of the African continent, we use the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, to impress upon the United Nations General Assembly, to call upon the nations of the world to grant complete independence, to the people of the republic of the SAHARAWI

Our immediate task continues to be the liberation of our people against imperialism and neo colonial domination. Our struggles for the total emancipation of the African continent without the independent republic of the people of the SAHARAWI, remains to be incomplete.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.

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