Nationalism and Political Integration in East Africa, a comparative study of Kenya and Tanzania

Abstract

African integration has been largely supported by governments since autonomy whereby they have held onto it as a critical segment of their improvement systems and closed countless Integration Agreements. The majority of these territorial bodies have a huge participation as nations try to join supranational bodies. Integration in Africa generally takes after a straight procedure that starts with an organized commerce range took after by a customs union, a common market and after that integration of monetary and financial strategies so as to build up a financial union and in conclusion the accomplishment of a political union which is the main objective for African integration agreements. The challenge of these integration agreements however is the fact that most of them are ambitious schemes and the time frames to achieve them are also quite unrealistic. Cooperation among nations in a trade or political bloc, economic or political sovereignty is realized. In a globalizing world, nations feel the need to join trade and political unions and this kind of regional integration agreements affect democracy and lead to accountability for policy making. African politics generally is marred with ethnicity and this leads to strong nationalistic views and differential access to resources and opportunities. For this reason, awing for any individual in any election is viewed as a win for the ethnic community from which he comes from opportunistic so it becomes difficult to give in to external agreements for a common political^goal.2m. Neopatrimonialism makes African politics personal, materialistic and Economic integration in Africa involved African countries trading with each other as well as trading with European countries and their activities were governed by a series of Lomé Conventions that allowed African countries except South Africa unilateral preferential access to EU markets. Trade agreements between African countries and the EU led to the formation of WTO in 2000. These agreements came into being as a result of EU being Africa’s most important trade, investment and development partner. The post-colonial period in Africa has seen African countries working towards implementing import substitution mechanisms and investing more in industrialization. This period was characterized by a strong commitment to economic planning across the region and it further led to the formation of the Lagos Plan of Action which was an initiative of the OAU adopted by Heads of states in April 1980.