How do actors connect to co-shape the move from transnational relations to continental supranationalism in Africa?

Join our scholar in residence Babatunde Fagbayibo for an engaging masterclass that explores this question. In recent years, efforts have been made to endow the continental integration process in Africa with supranational powers. However, these official measures have mostly excluded civil society.

This masterclass explores the various ways in which organised and broader civil society express their support for supranationalism in informal ways. These informal actions include a wide range of conscious and unconscious efforts by non-state actors to push for deeper continental integration and shape shared imaginaries for the future. These informal actions include a wide range of conscious and unconscious efforts by non-state actors to push for deeper continental integration and shape shared visions for the future.

The masterclass draws from scholarship on international law, political science and sociology, and speaks to the blind spots of meaning-making in multilateral settings. Even and particularly as the state is making a comeback in international politics, non-state actors continue to offer crucial and critical perspectives on African supranationalism.

Babatunde Fagbayibo is a Professor of International Law at the University of Pretoria. His research focuses primarily on the institutional development of the African Union (AU), in particular the process of empowering AU institutions with supranational powers. Other research interests include African politics, transnational policy analysis, critical approaches to international law, and governance and democratisation in Africa. He has written extensively on these topics. He is the author of the book Transcending Member States: Political and Legal Dynamics of Building Continental Supranationalism in Africa (Springer, 2022). He has advised the African Union on issues of democratic governance and constitutionalism.