In the current age of increased global fragmentation and the potential for regional organizations to become more important than ever before, Hunter et al. have produced a detailed account of why the East African Federation failed to launch, in spite of seemingly ideal conditions for a regional federation. Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika (now Tanzania), with their shared histories of British colonial rule, the use of the English language and tradition of movement between the countries, seemed to have all the necessary conditions to create a regional union. While there are many explanations for why this did not happen, Beyond Federation focuses on illuminating the ‘ambitious cultural projects’ (p. 3) that were taking place regionally, sometimes with the support of the colonial and then independent governments of the region and sometimes in opposition to these governments.

Drawing on extensive archival research, the authors explore the worlds of education, publishing and the media, and the trade unions and labour movement to understand how the East African liberal intellectual tradition was shaped by, but also exerted itself in the face of, both the colonial legacies of the region and the reality of the Cold War. The authors often use biographies of key figures, such as novelist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and trade unionist Tom Mboya, to highlight the scale and scope of the more informal interaction across the borders of the three countries.

A running theme of this book is the complex reality that many of these key figures were navigating as they attempted to build cultural spaces for East Africans. This book covers the period from just prior to independence to the first decade of independent governance. This period also captures the growing Cold War rivalry. How close to stay to the colonial government, and then later the independent governments, or whether to break with them was a major decision that could have serious ramifications for the success of these endeavours. Funding, in all realms, proved to be a particularly hazardous resource to find – if it was revealed to be from a suspect source, it could discredit a movement before it had a chance to establish itself. The authors weave these significant political changes into their story, while retaining their focus on the cultural and intellectual project of East Africa.

The authors also demonstrate how the intellectual idea of East Africa existed separately from the political project, and continued after the failure of the official East African Community. When domestic politics, such as the coup d’état that brought Idi Amin to power, closed the door firmly on a political union, the cultural ties allowed the idea of a community to persist and eventually be revived to create the contemporary East African Community. In July 2000, the latest iteration came into being and has subsequently increased its membership to eight East African countries. However, the authors point out that the current idea of East Africa is ‘tied much more explicitly to institutions and the formal process of integration than in the period we discuss in this book’ (p. 215).

Another strength of this book is that the authors demonstrate that this intellectual project was not confined to the elites. This was a period of growing literacy, and the dedication to producing works in local languages led to a boom in reading throughout East Africa, with ‘bookshop vans’ selling around 35,000 books in rural areas between 1965 and 1967 (p. 191). There was also a lively press and periodical scene in East Africa which promoted rigorous political debate and cultural discussion.

The chapter on higher education demonstrates clearly the tension between the desire for closer union between the three countries and the growing aspiration of these newly independent countries to chart their own paths. The University of East Africa, while it lasted, provided a space of mobility as students and staff moved between the three campuses, a home for intellectual discourse and publications, and for student protests. This union afforded the campuses a certain independence from the national governments (p. 120), but nationalist pressure (demonstrated most clearly through the 1970 Tanzanian University Act) ultimately proved too much for the University of East Africa to survive.

This book will appeal to researchers interested in East African history, social history and non-Western cultural and intellectual trends. The authors provide an in-depth review of an under-appreciated aspect of East Africa’s immediate post-independence period, and this book provides an excellent complement to the many political histories we have of this time.