East Africa in Transition: Images, Institutions and Identities

Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2005 by Okoth, P Godfrey

Bahemuka, Judith M. and Joseph L. Brockingdon, (eds,). East Africa in Transition: Images, Institutions and Identities. Nairobi: University of Nairobi Press, 2004. 313 pp.

For more than a decade, awareness in Africa has been growing to the effect that institutions of governance are critical to the achievement of sustainable human development. These institutions also play a vital role in the promotion of democracy and partnership construction in all areas that are essential to the advancement of developmental goals. A plethora of recent initiatives has been put in place. The initiatives aim at tackling the various aspects of collapsing institutions and unethical identification ventures.

The position of East Africa in the current world order can only be explained if the full ramifications and implications of globalization are placed centrally. The nuances and hidden meanings behind institutional identities both at personal and at collective levels that usher them to the global identities have to be studied. Additionally, synergy has to be created between the local and the global for the survival of the institutions.

For the purpose of having a meaningful exchange of ideas on the above issues, the International Learning Centre (ILC) at the University of Nairobi, with support from the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) and Kalamazoo College, brought together, in July 2001, leading scholars from the Universities of Dares-Salaam, Makerere and several Kenyan institutions of higher learning. These were joined by a group of twenty scholars drawn from the collaborating universities and colleges in the United States of America.

The result is the book under review, East Africa in Transition: Images. Institutions and Identities. It comprises seventeen chapters divided into three parts. Part one contains four chapters on images and discusses the importance of indigenous African Languages; convergence of learning; political integration in Africa; and imagination and initiation.

Part II contains eight chapters based on institutions. The topics discussed are: the Inter-University Council for East Africa; new trends in financing of Kenyan public universities; making institutions work for the poor in Kenya; the Kenyan debate in global context; rural households and gender analysis; transition to democracy; and challenging the political order.

Part III contains five chapters based on identities. The issues discussed include conflicting identities; religion and cultural identity; the role of initiation ceremonies for cultural identity; the widow's perception of being remarried; and archaeology in Kenya.

The major objectives of the book were to challenge the common thinking about countries undergoing transition and also to reexamine the process of change as it occurs in all areas of modern life. The authors were also concerned with the impact of transition on images, identities and local institutions.

The challenge to the authors against the backdrop of all the identified institutional weaknesses, convoluted identities and poor self-images is to aggressively participate in global partnerships while simultaneously creating an enabling environment that will nurture the emerging identities. In this regard, the book raises several questions, chief among them is what, in a holistic manner, informs and moulds the East African identities? Is it the shared colonial heritage including the legacy of artificial political borders? Is it a product of ethnicity and/or home locale? Could it be the similarity among the languages within the sub-region? Is it the commonality of the struggle of the people of East Africa to take their place in the global village? Is identity the product of self-actualization or a local response to global pressures?

The book, however, does not provide all the answers to these questions. There is, therefore, need for continued research and for serious selfreflection by all the stakeholders involved in the transition process. Similarly, there is need for communities to forge closer ties at all levels and in all areas both within the sub-region under the aegis of the reconstituted East African Community and across seas.

Otherwise the book is an important addition to the literature on East African studies. It, in a special way, contributes to the understanding and shaping of the process of change in the sub-region. It, therefore, provides useful reading to students of humanities and social sciences. The book should also be of interest to policy makers involved in transforming the dream of an East African Federation into reality. It should be useful to development practitioners as well as NGOs involved in the transition of the three East African States.

P. Godfrey Okoth Maseno University, Kenya