Also in attendance at that meeting was Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, whose country, like Algeria, had fought a quite bloody anti-colonial war against attempts by Britain to turn it into a White Settlement like Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), South-West Africa (Namibia) and Apartheid South Africa.
Leading the charge of African unity was the prophet, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who was such a great leader that many Africans including Nigerians in Europe and the United States claimed to be "from Nkrumah's country".
Presidents Modibo Keita of Mali, Sekou Toure of Guinea and Nkrumah in April, 1961 met to merge their countries into a single Union of African States, UAS, with harmonised domestic and foreign policies, economy and defence.
At this meeting, Nkrumah warned: "I can see no security for African states unless African leaders, like ourselves, have realised beyond all doubt that salvation for Africa lies in unity... for in unity lies strength, and as I see it, African states must unite or sell themselves out to imperialist and colonialist exploiters for a mess of pottage, or disintegrate individually."
Strong African leaders led by Mouamar Ghadaffi of Libya later tried to steer the OAU towards Nkrumah's dream of political and economic unity, but the body merely took a few steps, changing the OAU on September 9, 1999 to the African Union, AU.
