Challenging the Frontiers of African Integration: The Dynamics of Policies, Politics and Transformation in the East African Community

CHALLENGING THE FRONTIERS OF AFRICAN INTEGRATION : The Dynamics of Policies, Politics and Transformation in The East African Community

ISBN 978 9987 521-81-4

Author: Juma V. Mwapachu

About the Book

The basic premise of this book is that regional integration in Africa offers great promise in addressing endemic poverty and in advancing Africa’s integration in the global economy. Based on hands on experience of the author and a body of research focusing on the East African Community, the book breaks the path in providing a wealth of information and analysis of cutting edge topical issues on Africas,s emergent promise, as well as on the challenges that that confront Africa and EAC in particular in achieving deeper economic and political integration.

The EAC model of integration, with its unique and lofty but overly ambitious goal of political federation, evidently offers exciting possibility for the broader quest for the African Economic Community and the the United States of Africa. However, there also clear lessons, marked by challenges of zero sum game mindsets and sovereignty sensitivities that slow down and even hamper what would make the EAC process more robust and rewarding and with important bearing on Africa’s own continental ambitions.

A notable feature of the book is the coverage of the historical development of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Framework, a novel idea in the attempt to address the dysfunctions of multiple memberships of Regional Economic Communities in Africa and the pragmatic and progressive approach towards building a fast paced movement for the realization of the African Economic Community.

Ambassador Juma V. Mwapachu is a Tanzanian national. Until recently, he served as Secretary General of the East African Community. His long career has seen him serve in various capacities in his home country spanning both public and private sectors. A lawyer by training, Ambassador Mwapachu is currently President of the Society for International Development (SID), a global non-governmental organisation engaged in promoting development ideas and practices focused on building a more equitable, just and sustainable world. He is also Chair of the Governing Council of the University of Dodoma, a new and fast growing Tanzanian public university. He is author and co-editor of several books and academic publications. He holds two honorary doctorates in literature and political sciences from the University of Dar-es-Salaam and the National University of Rwanda, respectively. In December, 2011, President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya conferred on Ambassador Mwapachu the Moran of the Order of the Golden Heart (MGH). He lives in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.