AH I’LL TAKE THIS CHANCE TO POST THIS LIL COMIC I DREW FOR FUNSIES LMAO
TECHNICALLY TANZANIA SHOULD BE 10-12 HERE-this takes place around independence in the early 1960s, and while the ground work was laid, a unique Tanzanian identity hadn’t been really been fully developed yet!
The first calls for a wider East African organization also started around this time, with Julius Nyerere, leader of Tanzania, even offering to delay the independence of Tanzania (at the time Tanganyika) so that all of East Africa could achieve independence together. However, despite these calls, Kenya’s leader, Jomo Kenyatta, was privately reserved about such an organization, calling it a ruse to hasten the pace of Kenyan independence from Britain. (This became something of a pattern with Kenya dragging its feet when it came to political integration) By late 1964, prospects for this organization had pretty much died out, but even with the effort revitalizing in the 2010s, there continue to be many many obstacles towards East African unity.
Historically, Tanzania and Uganda have been extremely wary of Kenya- Kenya came out of colonialism with the better infrastructure and industry, so the two feared the real threat of Kenyan economic and geopolitical domination.
Kenya constantly advocated for closer economic cooperation, aiming to preserve the very favorable trade balance between it and the others, but Uganda, and especially Tanzania, countered that an integrated economic system was only acceptable with political integration. In 1965, despite Kenyan opposition, both countries decided to set up separate national currencies, and in 1965 and 1966, Tanzania levied unilateral import restrictions against Kenya, and Uganda followed suit in 1967.
To be fair, trade in East Africa ended up being wildly imbalanced in favor of Kenya regardless of whether or not the East African Federation happened....
