Beyond Neoliberalism: Looking to the East African Federation as a model of cooperation (8)

 

The proposed flag of the East African Federation (Source: WikiMedia Commons)

Here we are at our final post. In this post, I will reflect on topics covered in the blog and consider the question: what does the future hold for the Nile River Basin?  I believe that despite ethnic divisions, historical differences, and competing interests, cooperation is not only possible but necessary in the region amid a future of rapid population growth and climate change. Water treaties and sharing agreements (like the Nile Basin Initiative championed by the World Bank) have largely failed to achieve widespread cooperation in the past, and so I want to speculate on what resource collaboration beyond neoliberalism could one day look like. 

Let me begin this final post by stating that the neoliberalisation of Africa, led by institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, represents a textbook example of colonialism's violent afterlives (Bakewell, 2009). Through a carefully orchestrated scheme of austerity and financialization, these institutions keep formerly colonized countries perpetually in debt through an endless cycle of condition-laden short-term loans, all the while reaping the externalities of exploited labor (particularly the labor of women). The World Bank scarcely cares for the underlying ecological order of ecosystems, the empowerment of generationally oppressed peoples, or the optimal allocation of precious water resources. By championing a private-sector first approach and prioritizing foreign investment in African infrastructure and social services, the World Bank keeps the destiny of Africa firmly in European hands. Such injustice is by design.

Throughout this blog, we have centered analysis of the Nile River Basin primarily around three countries: Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. We have looked through the political dynamics between these countries and their history, and I have hinted at possible opportunities for collaboration to secure the future of water access in the Nile River Basin. Further south in the Basin is a peculiar case of collaboration in the East African Federation, a proposal to create one sovereign state by combining the countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda (Kasaija, 2004). Let me begin by stating that the dream of the East African Federation is still far from reality, and it is unlikely that the 2023 deadline of implementation (already extended from the original deadline of 2015) will be met. Like elsewhere in the Nile River Basin, the region is rife with mutual distrust between states and differing economic objectives. In order for the Federation to become a reality, states must reach a compromise on ranging topics from security, to customs, to trade, and currency. Powerful local business interests have worked to thwart cooperation between states fearing that a federation would threaten their profit margins. 

Despite barriers to progress, the reason I believe that the East African Federation provides a more compelling model to the future of resource sharing in the Basin than other plans is that the East African Federation is bold enough to look beyond old ways of thinking, such as the traditional borders of the nation-state, under the assumption that cooperation among states will allow greater prosperity for more people. This is the type of big thinking that the problem's of the next few decades in the Nile River Basin will require. If the states of the Basin want to secure a prosperous future for their citizens, rather than continuing the tired and futile tradition of inter-state conflict and competition, they will need to attempt to overcome the legacy of colonial exploitation and domination, which requires thinking beyond neoliberalism. The stakes have never been higher. There are no other options.