Thinking East African:Debating federation and regionalism, 1960-1977

Autor: Emma Hunter, Christopher Vaughan, Julie MacArthur, Gerard McCann
Přispěvatelé: Grilli, Matteo, Gerits, Frank
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Vaughan, C, MacArthur, J, Hunter, E & McCann, G 2021, Thinking East African : Debating federation and regionalism, 1960-1977 . in M Grilli & F Gerits (eds), Visions of African Unity : New Perspectives on the History of Pan-Africanism and African Unification Projects . 1st edn, African Histories and Modernities, pp. 49-75 . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52911-6_3
African Histories and Modernities ISBN: 9783030529109
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-52911-6_3
Popis: East African federation was a vision of regional African unity that emerged with force in the years of decolonisation. Federation never came to pass, and the East African Community that existed between 1967 and 1977 had a more limited, technocratic character, based on common services and economic integration. Yet this chapter shows that visions of East African unity circulated and were debated in a wider range of public spheres in the region than is usually acknowledged in the existing literature. We blend a political and cultural history approach to show the longevity and vitality of regionalist imaginaries, not just as a top-down project of national leaders but also as a means for publics to critique the growing authoritarianism of nation-state governments and to imagine alternative conceptions of sovereignty and belonging. The survival of regionalism to the present in East Africa, notably in the revived and expanded East African Community, should therefore be seen not merely as a technocratic, statist project but also as a manifestation of these enduring public imaginaries.
Databáze: OpenAIRE