Regional Organisations and African Underdevelopment: the Collapse of the East African Community

Abstract

For better or worse, Africa is coming of age. The golden epoch of high hopes for pan-African co-operation and unity has passed. In its place is coming a new era of confrontation, ideological conflict and even ‘African imperialism’ that threatens everything pan-Africanists believed in and were crusading for… at the dawn of [the] continent's independence from colonial rule. The change in the nature of pan-African politics from lofty idealism to hard-nosed realpolitik is nowhere more evident than in the present paralysis of the Organisation of African Unity. The Angolan crisis and now the Spanish Sahara dispute have laid bare the new realities of the African continent in a revealing and even devastating manner. – The Montreal Star, 16 March 1976.