Reviewed by: Wafaa El-houseiny

Translated by: Maryam Ayad 

Egypt, African House, 55 Years of Renewal and Tradition

Africa after Gamal Abd-Elnasser

Since Egypt’s first Administration to the African Union, (former Organization of African Unity) in 1964, Egypt has continued its regional duty towards our continent. Back then, Egypt went on support to the Organization of African Unity under the Regime of President Sadat. At that time, Egypt was the main factor behind conducting the Arab-African discussions in 1977. The Egyptian Diplomacy back then managed to strengthen Egyptian-African relations as well as spread African solidarity through its coordination between the member countries of the Arab-African group. The first Arab-African summit was held in 1977, in which Egypt hosted 65 Arab as well as African countries on its lands. At this summit, the first Political Manifesto was issued regarding the primary elements that would govern the Arab-African cooperation, as well as another Manifesto regarding Arab-African Economic and Financial cooperation. Nevertheless, an Institutional Structure for cooperation was established and included: the Summit, the Arab-African Council of Ministers, a Standing Committee for Cooperation, a Coordination Committee, and an Arab-African Court serving as a judicial body.

It's worth mentioning that the Arab-African summit was held in October 2010 in the Libyan city “Of Sirte”, with the attendance of 66 Arab as well as African countries. This summit was held under the theme “For Strategic Arab-African Partnership”. Then, in 2013, the third Arab-African Summit was held in Kuwait, under the theme: “Partners in Development and Investment”. After that, the fourth summit was held in 2016 in Equatorial Guinea under the theme: “Together for Sustainable Development and an Arab-African Economic Cooperation”. Nowadays, we are expecting the fifth Arab-African Summit, which will take place in KSA this year.

In his regime, President Mubarak has followed a different neutral policy regarding critical issues. However, Egypt went on supporting Rhodesia - Zimbabwe currently- as well as South Africa against racial discrimination. It’s also worth mentioning that “Mandella” chose Egypt to be the first country he visited after his release from 27-year imprisonment, as he was accused of provoking violence and conspiracy with foreign countries. His visit to Egypt was warmly welcomed by both, the Egyptian nation, and the Egyptian state.

In Mubarak’s regime, Egypt strictly followed neutral policies similar to those adopted by the African Unity, to solve some of the most stressful conflicts, such as the Libya-Chad conflict as well as the Ethiopian-Sudanese conflict that happened when the Sudanese state hosted the Eritrean Liberation Front on its land. These neutral policies that Egypt followed, especially that they were aligned with those followed by the African Unity, opened the door to Egypt to become the president of the African Unity twice, once in 1989, and the other in 1993.