Founding of Organisation of African Unity

The Organisation of African Unity was an organization of African states, founded in Addis Ababa in May 1963 by thirty-two newly independent countries. Its aims were to promote unity and solidarity among African states, to coordinate their policies, to defend their sovereignty and to end colonialism and white minority rule on the continent. Leaders such as Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania took part in its creation. It supported liberation movements, notably against apartheid and in the Portuguese colonies, but it was criticized for its policy of non-interference in members' internal affairs. In 2002 it was replaced by the African Union.

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