Heterogeneity in the CEMAC Sub-Region: Alternative Paradigm in Sub-Regional Integration

Abstract

The article is an analytical narrative on the challenges and prospects of integration in the CEMAC zone and uses the neo-functionalist concept as its underlying approach. It contends that the concept of African unity and integration was propagated and driven by Africans in the Diaspora, and that ownership of the concept was only transferred to Africans themselves after the 1945 Manchester Africa conference. The article focuses on theheterogeneous nature of the region's natural resources and how such diversifi cation
facilitates or impedes integration. Civil society participation in the integration debate has
been uncoordinated and its voice is absent in the deliberative organs of Communuate
Economique Metonetaire de l'Afrique Centrale (CEMAC). The challenges for integration in
the region are many, and there is need for the right political attitude, thinking and
perception for member states to overcome these challenges and work together for the
benefi t of the sub-region and its people.

Africa Insight Vol. 37 (4) 2008 pp. 160-182