Let’s talk about Africa; and the birth of the East African Federation.
It’s weird that I feel like I have to validate that choice of topic, what with so many other parts of the world going up in flames. If it isn’t the media-popular war in Ukraine, the Russian war crimes in Bucha, it’s the CCP starving people to revolt in Shanghai following a Covid resurgence, the IPCC concluding that large parts of this planet will shortly become uninhabitable by humans, or Sri Lanka facing imminent revolution. Shit’s fucky all over the place, and for some reason (I wonder why?!), the post-colonialist west keeps whatever happens in sub-Saharan Africa to the sideline of pretty much everything else.
Which is reason enough in and of itself to take a moment. That and the fact that the East African Federation could be a real good thing for the continent. And a journalistic trash panda like myself have to treasure these bright moments whensoever I come across them.
What’s this then; this East African Federation (EAF)? Odds are, you won’t have a clue, because I didn’t until yesterday. The EAF is… a dream. A dream that’s getting close to fruition. It’s a dream as old as Independence. Because what if – what if! – these European-designed countries, oh ever so benevolently released* by their colonial overlords, could band together and present a united front to post-colonial control? Wouldn’t that be nice?
Well, just so happens that a collection of East African states thought so as early as during the de-colonisation of Africa back in the 60’s*. Unified political systems, unified economies, unified interests, and a unified future.
Those dreams died. Between Cold War influence, military coups (not least of which Idi Amin’s little regime in Uganda and the Rwandan Civil War), and sheer political rivalry, the dream of the East African Federation died. Turns out that unity is difficult when both internal and external interests tug it apart. But since the end of the millennium, the dream resurrected.
Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya signed onto the road to federation-treaty in 1999. Rwanda and Burundi joined up seven years later. South Sudan jumped on the bandwagon in 2016. And just the other day, the Democratic Republic of Congo officially joined the effort to federate. Which sounds like feature-creep and would be one explanation why the treaty keeps missing its milestones. Other reasons being the pandemic, continual rivalries and political insecurities. But the effort is, albeit slowly, moving along.
Once federated under a single president, a single parliament, a single constitution, a single currency, and a single vision, the federation would be home to around 300 million citizens (about 2/3 of the EU population), and account for a GDP of somewhere between 240 and 600 billion USD, depending on who you believe (which compares less favourably to the EU’s GDP of 17.1 trillion USD, but still… bright side!). And under one united economical leadership, the EAF would have sovereign rights to many of the rare earth metals that our IT revolution is so horny for.
So what? What’s so cool about a political union in East Africa? Well, bluntly, it’s a big step toward self-determination. Which post-colonial power structures like the IMF and World Bank has financially eroded since the de-colonization of Africa. Bear in mind that while the European nations began to let got of direct control over the continent at the start of the 1960’s, they very much laboured to stay in indirect control through loans and schizophrenic development programs. And let’s not forget the interest that both the US and China has in developing and controlling the continent’s riches in both oil and materials for electronic components. And the only way that Africa can stand up to such meddling is unity. Just like with the idea of the trade union presenting a strong front to exploitative employers, so too can unity among African nations present a strong front toward exploitative post-colonialists, governments and companies both.
The EAF isn’t a done deal yet. Not just because it keeps moving the goal posts by accepting new applicants (not to mention two of the unruliest nations on the continent). It keeps running into problems as it trudges toward federation, as one should expect. No doubt neither West or East is happy about a strong Africa. But the project is progressing. Which, at least to mine ears, is a fucking delight. A sorely needed one, among wars and plagues and revolutions.
*mild to wild exaggeration
/Sebastian Lindberg 12/4-2022
WastedWords 