Thinking East African: Debating federation and regionalism, 1960-1977’

East African federation was a vision of regional African unity that emerged with force in the years of decolonization. Federation never came to pass, and the East African Community that existed between 1967-1977 had a more limited, technocratic character, based on common services and economic integration. Yet this chapter shows that visions of East African unity circulated and were debated in a wider range of public spheres in the region than is usually acknowledged in the existing literature. We blend a political and cultural history approach to show the longevity and vitality of regionalist imaginaries, not just as a top-down project of national leaders, but also as a means for publics to critique the growing authoritarianism of nation-state governments and to imagine alternative conceptions of sovereignty and belonging. The survival of regionalism to the present in East Africa, notably in the revived and expanded East African Community, should therefore be seen not merely as a technocratic, statist project, but also as a manifestation of these enduring public imaginaries.