This article examines how contending appeals to pan‐Africanism have been central to the (de)legitimation processes that have shaped the trajectory of African regional governance. Such appeals have been used variously to construct and contest the scale, pace and norms constituting continental integration, including its modes of participation. The African Union (AU) remains a site of contestation over the internal legitimation of competing pan‐African agendas as well as external legitimation in the face of interested global forces. We draw on relevant scholarly works, policy documents and interviews with AU practitioners to examine the AU's African Governance Architecture as a set of continental agencies, principles and processes claiming to promote a democratic governance agenda premised on pan‐African Shared Values and wider participation. We demonstrate how the particular functioning of several nascent participatory innovations under AGA reflects ongoing contestation over the form and function of African regional governance.

中文翻译：

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泛非主义，非洲治理架构中的参与和合法化

本文探讨了争夺泛非主义的呼吁如何成为塑造非洲区域治理轨迹的（去）合法化过程的核心。这种呼吁被广泛地用来建构和挑战构成大陆一体化的规模，步伐和规范，包括其参与方式。非洲联盟（AU）仍然是相互竞争的泛非议程的内部合法性以及面对感兴趣的全球力量的外部合法性的竞争场所。我们利用相关的学术著作，政策文件以及与非盟从业者的访谈来考察非盟的非洲治理架构，这是一系列大陆机构，原则和程序，声称它们促进了以泛非共同价值观和广泛参与为基础的民主治理议程。