This paper is primarily a piece of diplomatic history that retrieves the OAU’s initiative from its obscurity. It provides detailed narrative about this turning point in Africa’s history, explaining the motivation for the newly-appointed Secretary-General of the OAU, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, as he sought, with the support of his collaborators, to marshal a coordinated African response to the momentous events taking place at that time, and to ensure that the norms and principles of the OAU would be revived and refashioned for the decade ahead. The paper also details how the OAU Secretariat managed the process of moving from the February 1990 session of the Council of Ministers to the discussions of the OAU policy organs in July that year, leading to the adoption of the final text of the Declaration.
