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REGIONALISM IN AFRICA : A PART OF PROBLEM OR A PART OF SOLUTION
Margaret LEE
AAPS

INTRODUCTION Regionalism, as defined in this paper, encompasses efforts by a group of nations to enhance their economic, political, social, or cultural interaction. Such efforts can take on different forms, including regional cooperation, market integration, development integration, and regional integration. African leaders have long envisaged regionalism as a viable strategy to pursue with a view to uniting the continent both politically and economically. While regionalism in Africa has taken on different forms to accommodate the changing national, regional, and international environment, all organizations that aim to integrate regional economies in Africa have adopted market integration as a component of their strategy, with a view to increasing intra-regional trade. Market integration is the linear progression of degrees of integration beginning with a free trade area (or in some cases a preferential trade area) and ending with total economic integration. The model for such integration is the European Union (EU). Notwithstanding the fact that market integration has failed miserably on the continent,1 it continues to be highly regarded by most African leaders as a solution to Africa’ growing marginalization within the world economy. The creation of NAFTA s (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the movement toward EU monetary integration, only served to reinforce the commitment African leaders have toward market integration. In response to these events, the member states of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1991 signed the Abuja Treaty creating the African Economic Community (AEC), which calls for the total integration of African economies by 2025. The creation of the AEC falls on the heels of the failure of the OAU to meet the objectives of the 1980 Lagos Plan of

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