• The rampant outbreak of natural calamities like famine, floods and other epidemics. This
  compelled the UN and other organizations to take up the mantle of disaster management.
• Colonial legacy was another obstacle to the OAU. Some African states continued to
  identify with the former colonial masters eg Anglophone and Francophone. This
  undermined decisions of African states.

• Lack of a common continental language made it difficult for the OAU to promote
  meaningful co-operation.
• The frequent occurrence of military coups which undermined the work of the OAU in
  promoting democracy.
• The presence of dictators in Africa like Mobutu in Congo, Bokassa of CAR, Mengitsu in
  Ethiopia, Amin in Uganda and Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
• The OAU was greatly overwhelmed by the growing number of refugees. This presented a
  burden to the host member countries by sharing the scarce resources.
• Poorly developed infrastructure between the member states. This limited trade and
  economic cooperation among the member states.
• Interstate conflicts became a major challenge, ie Uganda vs Tanzania during Amin’s era,
  Ethiopia and Somalia over Ogaden, Nigeria vs Cameroon.
• The presence of neo-colonialism hence making African states to attain total
  decolonization.
• The oil crisis of 1973 – 1974 drastically affected the effective operation of OAU, ie made
  countries to adopt unfair strategies (affected regional economic integration).
• The failure of the member states of OAU to meet their subscriptions made the work very
  hard.
• The frequent outbreak of civil wars in Africa, ie Chad, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Somalia
  and Sudan.

• General illiteracy among the masses of the OAU member states. This undermined the
  effort of fighting poverty, disease and ignorance.
• Lack of an international peace keeping force of its own/army/high command. This made
  it impossible to intervene to solve the civil wars and other conflicts of the states.
• Assassination of prominent African leaders like Samora Machel in 1986, Anwar Sadat in
  1981, Amilcar Cabral in 1973, Chris Hani in 1993 etc.
• Ideological differences during the cold war era. This made countries to adopt capitalism
  like Kenya and Tanzania communism. This affected uniformity in problem solving.
• The geographical vastness (size) of the continent. The size of about 12 million square
  miles hindered the effectiveness in promoting political unity and trade in Africa.
• The heterogeneous nature of the continent was a major obstacle. Very many races, tribes,
  cultural and ethnic differences. This made unity of purpose very hard.

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