Pan-Africanism and the Challenge of East African Community Integration

The purpose of this short paper is to assess the challenge of regional unity like the East African Community (EAC) from the standpoint of pan-Africanism. We use the term ‘regional unity’, or regionalism, to refer to include both economic integration and political association. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the second-generation East African Community, it is opportune to stand back from the dominant debates on forms of integration – common market, monetary union, fast-tracking or snail-walking of the East African Federation etc. – and ask certain core questions: What exactly is the vision, the lodestar, so to speak, of the regional project? What is its historical genesis? What are the driving forces of the project, in whose interest and for what purpose? How does the project relate to the larger global forces, and in particular, to the changing world hegemonies? It is only by asking these bigger questions that we can critically assess where we are going and chart the possible way forward.

It is not my intention to enter into a debate on the merits or demerits of the forms of economic integration or the speed of political association. Rather I wish to pose the question as to whether we are asking the right questions. more >>>

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