Recent Relations between the States of East Africa
| Date | 01 December 1965 |
| Published date | 01 December 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000404 |
| Author | Colin Leys |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Recent
Relations
between
the
States
of
East
Africa
Colin
Leys*
In
the
Nairobi
Declaration
of
June
1963
the
political
heads
of
the
three East
African
mainland
states
publicly
committed
themselves
to
federation;
in
June
1965
they
were
beginning
to
prepare
the
public
for
a
substantial
reduction
in
the
area
of
functional
co-operation
that
had
been
established
prior
to
1963.
With
the
wisdom
of
hindsight
we
can
perhaps
see
that
the
reasons
for
this
development
are
fairly
obvious.
This
paper
chronicles
some
of
them.
Although
the
East
African
states
had
so
much in
common
they
had
some
very
important
differences.
The
optimists
pointed
to
what
they
had in
common
and
the
pessimists
to
the
differ-
ences.
Optimists
noted:
(1)
strong
historical
and
cultural
links,
deriving
from
common
history-slavery
and
Swahili
and
British
administrative
institutions
and
education-which
were
particu-
larly important
in
elite
circles;
(2)
far-reaching
functional
links
--
common
market,
common
services,
free personal
movement
(more
or
less),
common
currency,
etc.;
(3)
common
economic
and
political
interests-the
advantages
of
a
large
East
African
market
for
industrialization,
diplomatic
influence,
etc.
The
pes-
simists
noted:
(1)
differences in
the
character
of
the
political
systems
of
the three states,
especially
the
constraints
imposed
on
Uganda
by
Buganda's
longstanding
hostility
towards
East
African
union;
(2)
the
tensions
caused
by conflict
of
national
economic
interests
in
operating
the
common
market.
It
is
pos-
sible
to
see
very
clearly
now
that
the
optimists,
who
argued
that
Wheare's
classic
statement
of
the
prerequisites
of
federa-
tion
was
fulfilled
and
that
it
should
therefore
be
possible
to
establish
it
without
further
ado,
were
victims
of some
large
*University
of
Sussex.
This
paper
was prepared
for
the
M.I.T.
Fellows
in
Africa
Program
Summer
Conference,
1965.
At
the
time
of
writing
the
material for
it
was
lost
in
transit
from
East
Africa;
while
the
author
believes
the
facts
worded
in
it
to
be
substantially
accurate,
it
was not
possible
to
check
them all
before
going
to press.
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