DURBAN, South Africa — Zulu performers dressed in animal skins and carrying spears danced and fighter jets roared overhead as African leaders launched their new union Tuesday in a blaze of optimism, hoping it would rejuvenate the world's poorest continent.
"The people of our continent have made the ultimate statement that Africa must unite for a better life for all of the peoples of our continent," South African President Thabo Mbeki told dignitaries and thousands of cheering onlookers at a celebratory bonanza at a local stadium.
The inauguration has inspired a wave of celebration, including fireworks, a commemorative stamp and a theme song.
At the stadium in the coastal city of Durban, delegates danced as a choir sang the new African Union theme song: "African Unity let's make it a reality/ Unity is the key to the African Century."
South African soldiers parachuted into the stadium, helicopters flew by, an honor guard marched with the flags of all member countries, and the South African and Senegalese soccer teams were cheered as "heroes of the continent."
Despite the high hopes raised here, critics fear their leaders are replacing the Organization of African Unity with another bureaucracy with no real power to control some of the despots and corruption-riddled governments that plague the continent.
"The mutation of the OAU into the AU does indeed raise hopes. But these hopes are measured when we realize the new union will be run by the same people who were responsible for the failure of the OAU," said Joachim Mbandza, who runs the Catholic publication The African Week in the Republic of Congo.
The OAU was created 39 years ago as the wave of postcolonial liberation swept across the continent. Many have complained the toothless organization did little more than prop up dictators and give them a lavish summit to attend each year.
The 53-nation African Union, by contrast, is billed as a new organization for a new era — one that links a commitment to democracy and human rights to economic development.
Inspired, in part, by the European Union, it will have a security council, a legislature and an economic development plan.
The union's muscle is to be the peace and security council, whose 15 rotating members will be able to authorize a proposed peacekeeping force to intervene in cases of genocide and war crimes.
The union's other key element is the New Partnership for African Development, or NEPAD, which seeks billions of dollars of international investment in Africa in return for stable democratic governance and fiscal responsibility.
The world's wealthiest nations embraced the program at last month's Group of Eight meeting in Canada.
Not all African Union members will qualify for membership in NEPAD, however. They must first be able to comply with its basic tenets. A mechanism of peer review is to be set up so the member states can police one another.
Critics doubt their leaders' commitment to a union that in theory will take away some of their power, and they question whether it will be allowed to use soldiers to end civil conflict and human rights abuses in African countries.
Noel Twagiramungu, a human rights official in Rwanda, where more than 500,000 people were killed in a genocide in 1994 while Africa and the international community turned a blind eye, was cynical.
"For Africa to see fundamental changes, there must be a major change in the attitude and thinking of its leaders," he said. "The biggest problem facing the AU even before it is born is that none of the present leaders can stand up and say, 'I am a credible leader with moral authority and my peers should follow my example."'
Few of those doubts were heard in Durban.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela received huge cheers when he arrived at the stadium, followed by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who shook his fist in the air and smiled.
"No more slavery. No more colonization. It's a new dawn," Gadhafi later told the crowd, many of whom held posters of him.
Mbeki, who has been vying with Gadhafi for influence over the new union, stressed the importance of peace, stability and good governance to the future of the continent.
"Through our actions let us proclaim to the world we are a continent of democracy," he said.