Adar, Korwa Gombe, Kasaija Phillip Apuuli, Agnes Lucy Lando, PLO-Lumumba, and Juliana Masabo, eds. Popular Participation in the Integration of the East African Community: Eastafricanness and Eastafricanization.

• Author: Abidde, Sabella O.

Adar, Korwa Gombe, Kasaija Phillip Apuuli, Agnes Lucy Lando, PLO-Lumumba, and Juliana Masabo, eds. Popular Participation in the Integration of the East African Community: Eastafricanness and Eastafricanization. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020.

The African continent looms large in the psyche of many scholars, public intellectuals, and commentators. Africa is a cathedral of abundant human and natural resources--resources that far exceed what is needed to transform its many states and societies from agrarianism to an industrialized and modern society. But that is not the case; rather, it is characterized by underdeveloped political systems, stagnated economies, and severe basic human needs. Even so, there have been genuine efforts at progress through various means and more so through the establishment of economic communities. There are many such intergovernmental entities all over the continent, including the East African Community (EAC), made up of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Regional integration is primarily about trade and economic possibilities.

In theory, these blocs are established ostensibly to raise the living standards of the people, since it is generally agreed that development is primarily about the citizens and not abstractions like the state. In practice, however, many of the member states of such blocs and communities have for the most part paid scant attention to the people, their participation, and their real needs and concerns. Ironically, since the early years of the EAC, the state, as opposed to the people, has been at the fore and center of the community.

The need to refocus the EAC is one of the focuses of Popular Participation in the Integration of the East African Community: Eastafricanness and Eastafricanization. Its various chapters emphasize the value and indispensability of citizens' sovereignty and involvement in the affairs of the EAC and its respective countries. Edited by some of the continent's leading scholars and public intellectuals, the book examines the whole gamut of the EAC--including its challenges, possibilities, and shortcomings. But more than that, they wisely assembled a team of first-rate scholars to research and write about a subject that has profound implications not just on the growth and development of East Africa but also on the larger continent.

The book's eighteen chapters are grouped into three interrelated parts. Part 1, with seven chapters, discusses the...