Africa Day in 2024

When is African Unity Day?

African Unity Day, also known as Africa day is celebrated annually on May 25th. It commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on this day in 1963.

It is a statutory public holiday in several countries such as The Gambia, Mali, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

History of African Unity Day

On May 25th 1963, the leaders from 30 of the then 32 independent African states signed a founding charter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The OAU was created to help bring about change, freedom and independence to many African countries.

In 1991, the OAU established the African Economic Community, and in 2002 the OAU established its own successor, the African Union.

Since the establishment of the OAU, a further 21 states have joined. South Africa became the latest and 53rd member on May 23rd 1994.

Following the first Conference of Independent African States on April 15th 1958, African Liberation Day or African Freedom Day was celebrated in Ethiopia, South Africa and Ghana. This holiday was replaced by African Unity Day in Ghana in 1963.

Despite the name change to the African Union, both the name and date of Africa Day have been retained and Africa Day provides an opportunity to acknowledge the achievements of the peoples and governments of Africa.

Over 25% of the world’s languages are spoken only in Africa. Around 2,000 languages are in use in the continent. Despite this linguistic diversity, every African country has English, Portuguese, French or Arabic as one of their official languages, except Ethiopia. Europe colonized all of Africa except Ethiopia and Liberia. After those colonized gained their independence, they still kept the language of their colonizer as one of their official languages. At the time, Liberia, having been founded by African-American settlers in 1847, already had English as its official language. Ethiopia was not colonized, though it was briefly conquered by Italy ahead of the second world war, and its official language is Amharic. 

African Liberation Day in The Gambia

In 2009 National Assembly Members conferred power on the President to declare May 25th a public holiday. The mover of the motion at the time, Speaker Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay made reference to the African Union history and declaration to the effect that May 25th 1963 should be officially observed by member states following a call by the continental body.