East African FederationAuthor(s): Aaron SegalSource: Africa Today, Vol. 10, No. 7, To School with Love: The Story of a Ugandan Schoolboy(Sep., 1963), pp. 10-12Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4184445 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 11:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 11:07:12 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

An event of great importance

as three new states prepare

to surrender their sovereignty to an

EAST

AARON SEGAL AFRICAN

FEDERA TION

CERTAIN NON-AFRICAN OBSERVERS at the recent I ~~ Addis Ababa conference of Independent African States discerned two diametrically opposed approaches to African unity; that of President Nkrumah seeking immediate political unification and that represented by Prime-Minister Balewa emphasizing pragmatic functional efforts at limited forms of cooperation.

East Africa is about to provide a proving ground for these so-called opposed approaches. Under the present arrangements, Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda are bound together in ties of formal and informal in- terdependence yet retain their individuality and sov- ereignty.

The East African Common Services Organization (EACSO) which provides joint transportation, re- search and certain administrative services for East Africa affords a scaffolding on which to erect further degrees of integration. The common services help sus- tain the East African Common Market which enhances the international economic bargaining position of East Africa and facilitates local industrialization. The common services make possible in East Africa a de- gree of interdependence which does not yet exist in West Africa. Thus the choice for East Africa is not between political unity and functional cooperation but whether to build political untty upon the existing foundations of functional cooperation.

The choices available for East Africa are three-fold. *The first-a modest and secure choice-would be to continue the status qtuo, hoping that over the long run, education and propaganda wou-ld increase public awareness and appreciation of the common services and prepare the way for further integration. The ar- gument for this approach is that it would not endanger the real benefits of the status quo through the risks of an uncertain future. * The second choice would involve a modest yet

marked expansion of the existing common services; this would still fall short of political integration. Serv- ices such as a Central Bank, inter-territorial broad- casting, and sharing of overseas diplomatic repre- sentation would be added to the present list of com- mon services. The basic responsibility for economic and social development, however, would remain with the present national governments. * The third choice involves forming, from the outset, a federation; preferably one in which a reasonably strong central government had responsibility for the over-all planning and allocation of resources in East Africa.

These three choices are not necessarily mutually exclusive but they involve critical considerations of timing. It has been argued that once national inde- pendence has been achieved certain pressures and loy- alties are brought into being which make very difficult a later renunciation of that independence in favor of membership within a larger political unit. While a continuation of the status quo or a modest expansion of the common services involves the fewest immediate risks, they could prejudice the formation of a future federation by -allowing territorial nationalisms to take a firm hold.

These three choices need to be viewed from a dual perspective in order to assess properly their advan- tages and disadvantages. They must first be evaluated from the standpoint of East Africa as a whole and then from the standpoint of each of the East African countries. This is because the arguments and consid- erations of benefit to East Africa may not necessarily

AARON SEGAL is, with Carl G. Rosberg, Jr., co- author of "An East African Federation," (Inter- national Conciliation, NY, 1963). He is now in East Africa on a Ford Fellowship.

10 AFRICA TODAY

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 11:07:12 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

be to the benefit of each of the East African countries or may be disproportionately beneficial between them.

Economic development and planning cannot take place on an East African basis under the present ar- rangements. The East African Common Services Or- ganization lacks the power and sources of revenue to ensure such development, thus the national govern- ments have shouldered the responsibility. The East African Common Services Organiization is headed by a Council of Ministers composed of the Prime Minis- ters of each of the East African countries. But Prime Ministers are first and foremost responsible to their own national governments and electorates. The East African governments compete among themselves and overseas for financial and economic resources. The present arrangements do little more than mitigate the consequences of such competition.

An East Afrrican Federation capable of exercising responsibiilty for economic planning on an East Afri- can basis would require a strong federal government. It would require financial resources and control over tariff and tax rates which the present national gov- ernments would be reluctant to surrender. It might well require the power to purchase land and relocate individuals on a non-tribal and inter-territorial basis to cope with the growing problems of land erosion and land hunger in certain parts of East Africa. Such a strong central government would be very difficult to bring about, yet to institute a weaker federal govern- ment would risk incurring popular displeasure for what might be regarded as a costly, unnecessary, un- productive burden. The onus attached to federation as a result of the efforts of Europeanl settlers in Kenya and Central Africa to use the federal device to insure their control still carries weight within East Africa. Educated and enlightened political leaders may create a federation in East Africa'-but unless it is capable of providing tangible benefits quickly to wide sections of the public, it will not obtain or retain public sup- port.

Politically the present arrangements confine and limit the independence of the national governments without enabling the full benefits of interdependence to be realized. Thus each East African country main- tains its separate diplomlatic representation and for- eign policy; yet if East Africa is to exercise a sig- nificant role in African affairs it must speak with a unified voice. Similarly in international economic ne- gotiations East Africa must negotiate as a single unit or else risk the disruption of the common market through one of the countries entering into a bilateral treaty unacceptable to the others.

Federation, however, poses formidable political ob- stacles. There are, of course, institutional problems: Whether to adopt a presidential or parliamentary form of government . . . the most desirable division of powers between the federal and regional govern- ments . . . and so on. Rut then there are the long-run problems of nation-buldidng with a federation. East Africans pr^esently immersed within a tribal point of

view might find the transition from national to fed- eral loyalties to be bewildering if not overwhelming. Those tribal groups who fear the economic or educa- tional achievements of their neighbors might feel that a federation would leave them further behind. Federation involves a redistribution of political power which implicitly and explicitly threatens the existing dvision and distribution of power within each of the East African countries.

S U D A N ETHIOPIA

N Entbe upK E N Y A

Kampala \5

VcOri Nairobi r

z

Q ombasA s l lo

labor lost. The Buganda have struggled, first against the fBritish and now within an independent Uganda, to secure a position for themselves that will guar- antee theirs privileges and separate statuls. These could only be jeopardized within a federation likely to be dominated - by the dynamic nationalism of TANU (Tanganyika Afr4ican National Union ) and KANU (Kenya African National Union), irreverent to the hereditary Kabaka and his kingship in Besuganda. A landlocked Uganda has no other outlet for its exports and nmust negotiate for the most satisfactory compro- raise obtainable. Independence without interdependence would involve economic suicide for Uganda. Given these factors it is understandable that the Buganda, and perhaps Uganda as a nation, prefer either a con- tinuation of the status quo or a modest expansion of the common services rather than an imminent feder- ation.

Tanganyika sftfers most from the restrictions im-

SEPTEMBER 1963 1i

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 11:07:12 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

posed on independence by interdependence. Becatuse capital moves freely withini the East African Common Market, Tanganyika must either accept the tax rates and fiscal policies of her better-off neighbors or else risk a substantial capital outflow. Tanganyika cannot establish her own Central Bank, for to do so would jeopardize the common East African currency, yet Tanganyika has the greatest need to mobilize internial credit sources. Thus it is in the interests of Tanga- nyika to secure new arrangements that will provide an interdependence involving planning and sharing or else recover the means to exercise a more inidependent economic policy on behalf of Tanganyika alon-e.

Kenya derives the largest benefit from the present arrangements sinice geographic and econiomic advan- tage favors the location and expansion of induL stry within Kenya to serve the entire East African market. Kenya partially offsets its overseas balance of pay- rnents deficit by outstanding favorable trade balances with its East African neighbors. The location of the headquLarters of EACSO within Kenya only serves t(-o) emphasize further its economic predominanice. More- over the critical shortage of arable lantd in Kenya makes essential the preservation of the East African Common Market, thus allowing industrialization to provide employment for some of the Kenya landless. It is argulable that onily by transfers of population

(To School with Love, continued) to the headmaster's office. He was an Englishman, a reasonably tall man, sharp-nosed with sharp eyes. He was on the whole a kind gentle man. Eager to hear from me,, he asked me what I wanted. I placed my application before him. After he had read it he sent me to his secretary. The secretary wrote my name on a long form. That was a form granting a place to me in the school in Senior II. I was to join the school the following Monday. On my way I went laughing to myself as I was very joyous. I had the supreme gratitude towards my new headmaster. I went and washed my clothes and made ready for the morning. I told my master where I am working that I had ob- tained a place in a school and to have my pay ready.

Born Unlute cy It then became necessary for me to attend my

master's shop for my service there in the evenings. Always after school from 5 PM I attended the shop. It waf not easy to do this because I met many dis- advantages. My studies were oppressively affected by the work, I had not enough time to devote to my studies. Then on the 30th of April my master dis- missed me from my work. He said that his profits were not enough to continue to pay me 50/- a month. As you know, I could not work for nothing, so I stopped. Now I am increasing the number of unem- ployed in the city. I am a boy who was born unlucky and perhaps what is confronting me is misfortune.

across present national boundaries can Kenya fully cope with the dimensionis of its land shortage. Kenya both requLires interdependence and benefits from it in

a way that is not true for Tanganyika and Uganda. Thuis Kenya must seek whatever arrangements are most likely to preserve those benefits. It is conceivable that onily through federation can Kenya forestall na- tioinal jealouLsies directed at its present favored eco- nomic position. There is already a growing trend to evaluate each of the common services, not from the standpoint of its beenefit to East Africa as a whole, bt-ot according to its relative benefit to eachi cotintry. Thils thin-king explainis the deemise of the East African Navy whieh Tanganyika an(c Ugan'ida ref-Lused to sup= polt oni the groLunds that its seivices were principally to the benefit of Kenya.

The recent Keaiya electionis bring to power a ma- jority government fUlly capable of deciding oin Kenya's future relations with East Africa. The three choices of a conitniiuation of the *stasle.,s qlo, nmodlest. expansionl of the common services, or imminenit decision to form a federation are alr-eady thle sUbjeet of discussions be- txveen East African political leatders,. The ini-mortance of federation for East Africa an.d for- eaC-h of the couintries coicernled will provide ani obbjet lesson for- the debate o-oi roads towards nii-it-vy in] Al-rica --wa hich tooLn place at Addis Ababa.

(Peasants af War, contintued) on the palms, 300 on the soles of his feet, 300 on the buttocks, and then chained him in a crouching posture and threw him in jail. This wonderful old actor illus- trated the beatings and chaining with eloquent ges- tures whose humor did not obliterate the tragedy.

Ingles took us to other villages. -From one, on the border, we could see on the Angolan side the site of two abandoned villages - both bombed, strafed and finally destroyed by napalm by Portuguese planes.

In another village, we heard of the fate of a man and a womnan who had gone to draw clear water from a spring too close to Angola. A Portuguese patrol had chanced on them, seized them and beheaded them. The heads were planted on the ends of poles and paraded in the streets. This horrifying Portuguese rite is bturned deeply into the conscience of Angolans. Above the spring, on a rock, we saw the plaintive sign paint- ed: "It doesn't really matter what you did here be- cause the future is ours."

The future is theirs: The man was carried to Matadi in the Microbus (he had stepped on a land mine and his entire body was bleeding, the flesh hanging loose and red, the lids swollen shut to the size of golf balls) ... the starving child, his skin following the contours of the bones beneath, save for the protruding, bloated belly . . . the woman who sang so clearly her revolu- tionary song to an ancient Protestant hymn tune . . the young militant proudly saluting with his wooden rifle the flag of a nation in birth. The future is theirs.

AFRICA TODAY

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 11:07:12 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions