Frequently Asked Questions About East African Community (EAC)
and Why it is Such a Big Deal That DRC Has Joined?
Hello rafiki 😊
Welcome to the Not an Afterthought newsletter, where we lead the conversation on how to accelerate Africa’s socio-economic development and how to use technology to drive effective change that makes Africa not an afterthought.
Today we start a series on East African Community that we will tackle for the next few weeks. The EAC motto is One People, One Destiny because regional integration is integral to Africa’s socio-economic development.
The best place to start is the beginning.
If you know the beginning, the end will not trouble you.
African Proverb
What Exactly is the East African Community?
According to the dictionary, A community is a group of people who live in the same place or area and have a particular characteristic in common.
The East African Community is a group of people who live in the Eastern part of Africa. They have several characteristics in common, including:
Most of them speak Kiswahili, a Bantu language influenced/derived from the many Bantu communities in the region, with a few words loaned/borrowed from Arabic and other languages.
They engage in agriculture as their primary economic activity. More than 70% of East Africa's population live in rural areas, and they depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
The majority of the people in East Africa are young. The median age in East Africa is 18.7 years, making the people one of the greatest resources.
A lot of cultural similarities because a majority of East Africans are of Bantu descent. Take DRC, for example, approximately 30% of Africa's population is Bantus (about 350 million people) and 60 million reside in DRC.
East Africans have a shared pre-colonial and post-colonial history.
The most beautiful foreheads south of the Sahara (read large 😅)
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How was the East African Community Formed?
It began in 1917 when East Africa was still under colonial rule. The then colonial leaders of Uganda and Kenya formed a Customs Union.
A Customs Union is an agreement between two or more countries that neighbor each other to increase trade among themselves.
In 1927, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) joined the Customs Union. Tanganyika joined after becoming a British protectorate.
In 1939, the second world war began, and the British Governors in charge of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania created boards to coordinate the war efforts.
After the war, the British government, having seen how effective the corporation between the three Governors was, proposed the formation of the East African High Commission.
The commission's goal was to manage inter-territorial services in the region—these are the services that existed in all three territories.
In 1948, the Customs Union thus became the East African High Commission (EAHC). It was made up of the British Governors in charge of the three territories and was chaired by Kenya's Governor. They met twice or thrice a year, and their decisions had to be unanimous.
They managed the port, railways, postal network, and telecommunications, among other services. The East African Railways and Harbors Administration, for instance, was under the EAHC purview.
In 1961, at the height of the decolonization efforts, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda's representatives met in London. They agreed to create The East African Common Service Organization (EACSO), which would replace the East Africa High Commission and perform almost similar services.
On 9 December 1961, when Tanzania gained independence, The East African Common Service Organization officially replaced the East Africa High Commission. Similar to EAHC, EACSO was headquartered in Nairobi.
What was the Mandate of the East African Common Service Organization (EACSO)?
EACSO's mandate was to manage some of the common services in the three countries. The services included social services, transportation, communication, scientific research, tax collection and university education.
EACSO also had a charter (a document describing what they wanted to achieve) aimed at:
Creating a common currency
Creating a common appellate court
Establishing a common market that would allow goods and services to circulate freely and increase trade
By 1965, just four years after the formation of EACSO, a growing preference for nationalism and conflicting political and economic policies created a divide, and EACSO started falling apart.
Why Did East African Common Service Organization Change to the East African Community (EAC) in 1967?
After EACSO fell apart, the three leaders met again and decided to form a new organization in 1967—the East African Community. This time around, they focused on cooperation to mitigate the difference of opinion regarding politics and the economy.
East Africa Community was thus founded on the framework defined in the Treaty for East African Cooperation.
Unfortunately, in 1977, the EAC fell apart again. It was primarily due to Idi Amin's brutal regime in Uganda and Tanzania's socialist move.
Also, around this time, Uganda accused Kenya's government of supporting rebels against Uganda's government, while Kenya accused Uganda of illegal incursions into Kenya. The accusations further worsened relations.
In 1977, the original EAC was dissolved.
When and How Was the East African Community Revived?
In 1984, after several meetings, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania signed a Mediation Agreement.
The Agreement facilitated the division of assets and liabilities of the former East African Community.
In addition to that, the three member states agreed to explore avenues of cooperation in the future.
That goodwill led to multiple meetings in the early 1990s that resulted in the Agreement for the Establishment of the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Cooperation.
The three Heads of State signed the Agreement on 30 November 1993.
In 1996, the Secretariat of the Permanent Tripartite Commission was launched in Arusha, Tanzania, and full East African Cooperation operations kicked off.
Between 1996 and 1997, the three Heads of State discussed and saw the need to consolidate regional cooperation. On 29 April 1997, they directed the Permanent Tripartite Commission to start the process of upgrading the 1993 Agreement into a Treaty.
The treaty-making process took three years, and it involved massive negotiations and public participation.
Finally, on 30 November 1999, the member states signed the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community in Arusha.
On 7 July 2000, the Treaty entered into force, and the East African Community as we know it today came into being.
On 1 July 2007, Rwanda and Burundi joined and became full members of the East African Community.
On 16 April 2016, the Republic of South Sudan followed suit and joined the East Africa Community. South Sudan became a full EAC member on 5 September 2016.
One month ago, on 8 April 2022, DRC joined the East African Community.
Why Is It Such a Big Deal That the Democratic Republic of Congo Has Joined the East African Community?
At the top of the list is the population increase. The East African Community now has 300 million citizens.
A large population allows the region to leverage economies of scale for economic growth. Economies of scale is the advantage experienced by companies or firms when they produce more of something because of a bigger market.
Say you are a Kenyan company that sells natural hair products. Now you have a potential market of 300 million people. By producing more of the product to cover the larger market, the cost of production goes down, and profit increases.
That advantage you get—of lower production cost—is economies of scale.
Second, it opens up opportunities to citizens in the region. The Common Market Protocol allows workers from Partner States to accept employment from any EAC community country. Did you know that?
Once DRC ratifies the Agreement, any EAC citizen can accept a job in DRC and vice versa for people from DRC—they can get a job in any of the other EAC countries.
Third, DRC is rich in natural resources. A certain study concluded that if all the natural resources in DRC could be exploited, DRC would have half of all the money on earth!
When DRC finally joins the EAC Customs Union and Common Market, she will be able to leverage expertise and resources from the other six countries to help harness DRC's natural resources.
For example, Eastern Congo, which has a lot of natural resources, is landlocked. Now that DRC has joined EAC, they have access to the Indian ocean through various routes because the Eastern part of Congo borders Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
Finally, the joining of DRC will bolster innovation. Someone once said:
Money is the only reward you get for solving problems.
As EAC citizens begin innovating around issues unique to DRC, money is the only reward.
There are also problems unique to the other EAC Partner States that DRC might already have figured out. By bringing such solutions to EAC States, money is the only reward.
Why Should I as an EAC Citizen Care About the East African Community?
Because as the EAC motto states, East Africans are one people who share one destiny.
There is only so far one can go alone. How does that proverb go?
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
You should care because the more value East African Community Partner States offer each other, the higher the socio-economic growth. Increased economic growth will, in turn, improve your living standard.
The colonialists drew these borders for their benefit. There is nothing to be done about it now. The borders are set in stone because East Africans/Africans have developed identities around the national borders.
Kenyans, for instance, are obsessed with their bracelet👇🏽 It is part of their identity and they are unlikely to let go of it!
But as East African Community citizens, it's possible to flip the script and use what was meant to extract from the region to become what will build it.
If the borders were drawn based on each country's value to the colonial powers, then through increased integration, economic cooperation, and trade, East Africa can offer that value to each other instead of offering it to the west.
You should also care because unless African countries work together, Africa will never alleviate poverty.
There is a reason the British had more than one colony—because the value of one individual colony was too low. If Kenya, in and of itself was enough, the British would never have gone for Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and all the rest. Same thing to the French and Portuguese. Belgium is a special case because DRC is a special case.
One people, One Destiny! It is as simple as that.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed the article and think others might as well, kindly share.
If this is your first time here, here are a couple of issues that you might have missed.
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Winning Lessons For Startup Founders From The Man Who Built Nike
The Bitter Truth: Real Change in the Continent Will Not Come From African Leaders or Governments
For feedback, constructive criticism or a private chat, please shoot me an email at nafterthought@gmail.com. Alternatively, leave a comment.