East African Community: The Past Informs The Present. Memory Makes The Map We Carry, No Matter How Hard We Try To Erase It.

Basically before we answer the question we must first understand the history of East African Community and establish what happened between 1967 and 1977. The East African Community formally came to existence on 1st December 1967, which was formed by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. There are certain reasons that lead to the establishment of the East African Community. After the three countries gained their independence from the British they sought to make a treaty known as The East African Treaty of Cooperation. The treaty came into place because earlier the countries were associated by common market. They came to an agreement on various things for example a uniform external tariff and a number of shared services such as railway services, ports, and airways.

In addition to this the East African Community was to ensure improvement on how trade was carried out among the members, improvement in the transport area, increase investments and the productivity rate in the country, promote peace, harmony and security and etc. However there was a major problem that needed to be resolved. The common market agreement was only advantageous to Kenya. This is because to some extent Kenya was more developed, and due to this it attracted the most investments. This investments came along with more opportunities and t opened more doors for Kenya. This did not sit well with Uganda and Tanzania. Due to all this the common market was at the verge of collapsing. After a realization of the matter a new treaty of Eat African cooperation was created by a commission under an independent chairman, the Danish economist Professor K. Philip and that’s when it was enacted December 1967. The new treaty was designed to help strengthen and encourage Uganda and Tanzania. The countries decided to impose an import duty on each other and they had to appoint a minister who would be responsible for community activities.

On January 1971, there was a coup outing the president and replacing him with Idi Amin who posed a threat to the cooperation between the three countries. Nyerere, the president then of Tanzania refused to acknowledge the new president of Uganda and Kenya tried to be a mediator. In 1971, the EAC was in rocks and there was continuing disparity in economic development between Kenya and the other two partners. At this point the countries strived to keep the EAC going since they benefited in one way or another. By 1973 the situation got worse due to Idi Amin’s ruling. The EAC, was affected negatively, for example the number of tourists decreased and the trade was affected. Tanzania and Uganda selfishly decided to impose restrictions on goods that had been manufactured by Kenya. Kenya was fed up and decided to revise the treaty. During this time corporations or services that were jointly created began to either collapse or ran into major trouble. In 1974 the relationship between Tanzania and Kenya deteriorated to an extent Kenya closed all but one border post with its neighbor and accused Tanzania of trying to ruin its trade with Zambia. The crisis grew so much and finally the EAC collapsed since there was no remedy available. Uganda was most troubled by the collapse since there is no access to sea. In December 1977, it all came to an end when Tanzania blamed Kenya for trying to change structures of the EAC and apparently treating Uganda and Tanzania like they are poor. There are several reasons that contributed to the collapse of the East African Community they include: -

• Tanzania had fear that Kenya was benefitting more than it and it created some tension. The rivalry was pushed to an extent Kenya closed all but one border. · The second reason was that Tanzania and Uganda leaders were not in good terms Nyerere did not want anything to do with Idi Amin and made it so difficult for the two countries to work together or rather have any relation.
• The countries had different ideologies. The countries were on a different page to start with Kenya was on capitalism, Tanzania on socialism and Uganda was a little mixed up. Due to the differences there was a hindrance in how things were done. There was no cooperation.
• Apart from Kenya being more developed, it had more industries meaning Kenya did benefit more than Tanzania and Uganda. This lead to an economic growth in Kenya leaving the other countries behind. They didn’t find t fair at all.
• Through influences the foreign countries made sure that East African Community had collapsed. This was done to ensure that the East African Countries would still depend on them. In addition to that they ensured that this countries do not develop and rise above them.
• Another reason was failure to specialize in one area. Instead of each country perfecting on one thing for the benefit of them all they based themselves on duplication. They hadn’t learnt on how integration worked and the aspect of pulling each other up by learning each other’s strengths and using them to their advantage.
• The weakness of OAU contributed to the collapse of the East African Community. This is because the OAU failed to maintain its stand on regional integration and interterritorial understanding.
• Another reason that contributed to the collapse was the rivalry between Uganda and Kenya. This started when Idi Amin decided to grab land in the western parts of Kenya and rift valley. Kenyatta was fed up so he cut off the oil supply to Uganda and closed off the border. This lead to a deterioration in tourism since people could not move in and out of Uganda and Kenya which also affected the trade.
• The East African Community did not have an organ to help them solve its disputes and due to this all the arguments that the countries had only fueled the collapse of the community since they weren’t being solved. Last but not least it is stated that “The main reasons contributing to the collapse of the East African Community being lack of strong political will, lack of strong participation of the private sector and civil society in the co-operation activities, the continued disproportionate sharing of benefits of the Community among the Partner States due to their differences in their levels of development and lack of adequate policies to address this situation.

As much as there are so many negative things that happened which even lead to the collapse of the East African Community, there actually positive things that happened and turned out to be advantageous for the member states. The East African Community promoted education in East Africa. There were exchange programmes that were created between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This proved beneficial for the students. Even though the East African Community had achieved several things the disadvantages outweighed them hence the collapse. The opening statement of the question states that “The past informs the present. Memory makes the map we carry, no matter how hard we try to erase it. ” Cara Black, Murder in the Bastille. This statement means that as much as mistakes do happen people should learn from them. With mistakes experiences are born, once experiences are acquired we get to learn which path to use and which traps to avoid. As much as it is history he scars are never forgotten and since you cannot erase the past we must learn to live with it and ensure it is not repeated.

An example of the memory is the Political clashes that were experienced in Kenya in 2007. It is a time where due to political differences many people lost their lives, homes were destroyed and due to the situation in the country the economy went down, tourists fled and it was a chaotic. As much as days and years have gone by we cannot change the mistakes we made, we can't revive the lost souls but all we can do is use that tragedy as a map and a guide to know what to do and what to avoid as we carry out every other election or even our day to day lives. Now in the context of the East African Community, mistakes were made during the first treaty between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that led to the 1st collapse in 1977. The only way for the current East African Community to prosper was by using the fist collapse treaty as a teacher and guide. As much as the East African Community went through a rough patch and collapsed it was revived in 1999, with the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. The treaty was between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Later on in 2007 Burundi and Rwanda became members of the East African Community.

In April 2016, South Sudan joined the community bringing them to a total of 6 member states. During the revival of the East African Community there were objectives that were set down that were meant to be achieved gradually. This objectives included, the establishment of a Customs Union, a Common Market, a Monetary Union, and ultimately a Political Federation of the East African States. Of which with time the Customs Union and Common Market were established in 2005 and 2010 respectively. The Treaty was also created to ensure harmonization and integration in the East African Community. Integration and harmonization was to ensure development in the countries not only economically but also politically and even socially. Due to economic development countries’ citizens would stand to gain a lot. The treaty was also meant to promote a good relationship among the countries for better security. The treaty of the East African Community was also to ensure equitable development among the member states. It is also stated “the objective of the community is to develop policies and programs aimed at “widening and deepening cooperation among Partner States in political economic, social and cultural fields, research and technology, defense, security and legal and judicial affairs for mutual benefit.

The East African Community having collapsed before there are various challenges that must be addressed in order to get to the goals that were aspired. The key challenge is being overambitious, the community has set a large number of goals to be achieved in a small duration of time as they are emulating some other organizations. In the end the community ends up being so overwhelmed instead of moving step by step. With this there is over decision making that poses a threat to the integration. There are certain factors that actually hinder deeper integration for example the political instability that is experienced by most countries in the community and the issue of security. Due to the insecurity being experienced the borders cannot be fully open to other member states hence being a slight hindrance. Poverty is another reason but it is minor in this case the member states should collectively invest in order for them to grow and develop. With the East African Community growing we must learn from the previous reasons that lead to the collapsing of the Community in 1977.

Learning from them requires knowing how to prevent them and in case they did arise how we would rectify that. For example the East African Community must learn to work together even during a rough path no one should go ahead and close their borders but instead have the issue solved by a body that is fair and unbiased. Second example is that the leaders should be in good terms with each other in order to ensure the countries are always at peace and to avoid a repeat of Idi Amin and Nyerere’s rivalry or even Kenyatta and Idi Amin. Earlier in the East African Community that collapsed the countries were so caught up in competition instead of working together by finding their economic scale. Countries should find out their strengths and weaknesses and use them to their advantage instead of everyone manufacturing the same product. Another example is that the countries should strive to follow the treaty and respect should be observed highly not only among the citizens but also the leaders and etc. These are just some of the examples of remedies the East African Community could observe in its second journey to avoid another collapse. Now that the community gained experience from the collapse and it is trying to correct its wrongs is the perfect example of the past informs the present.