ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the first East Africa Community (1967–1977) – at its time the most sophisticated regional integration scheme in Africa and one of the most promising Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in the world. Our main argument is that the history of the collapse of the EAC in 1977 can provide important lessons for European integration – especially now that the EU faces various challenges ranging from growing economic disparities to the rise of populist parties. There are four lessons that the history of the EAC can offer to the EU: firstly, the importance of the equitable distribution of gains; secondly, the significance of perceptions of relative losses in contrast to perceptions of absolute gains; thirdly, the gravity of political will and visionary leadership that can form crucial counterbalances to centrifugal tendencies; and last but not least, the effect of different economic philosophies and developmental strategies.
