Smart New Club

While most attempts at regional co operation in Africa have been feeble and fleeting, three leaders have devoted considerable time and brainpower to planning an effective togetherness. Ken ya's Jomo Kenyatta, Tanzania's Julius Nyerere and Uganda's Milton Obote spent many months working out the details of their East African Economic Community, which has just started operating. Already, foreign businessmen are eyeing it with interest -- and other African politicians with a touch of envy.

Last week, when the three rulers gath ered in the Ugandan capital of Kampa la to talk about the Community's future, nine other African leaders showed up to knock on the door.

At least three of them want to get in right away, and the others are giving serious thought to joining. Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie flew into Kampala with his pet Chihuahua Lulu to put in his country's bid for membership. President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia said that his country wants in because it believes that such cooperation is "a matter of life or death." With a hostile white regime in Rhodesia as a neighbor, Zambia sees its economic future in East Africa. Even Somalia's President Abdinashid AH Shermarke, whose country has recently encouraged rebellious tribes in both Kenya and Ethiopia, had cooled off enough to come along and ask to join. The other nations represented--Rwanda, Burundi, both Congos, the Sudan and the Central African Republic--are hoping that the new Community will bring better communications, air service and highways to a large part of Africa.

Reversing the Tide. While color alone has never been a strong enough tie to unify a continent whose people have plenty of other differences to fight over, economic interest could reverse the tide of apartness. The new Community now offers a common market of 28 million persons that is largely free of tariffs. If the Community embraces the other nine nations, it would have a market of 100 million people.

At this stage, Kenyatta, Obote and Nyerere are not talking about any political integration. Nonetheless, the Community inevitably promotes closer administrative and political ties. Each country, for example, has agreed to allow workers from the other two states to cross its borders to seek employment without passports or entry permits. The Community will have both a "cabinet" composed of three ministers of East African affairs, one from each government, and a Legislative Assembly that will include nine persons from each nation to enact laws governing services. Though only a modest first step, the East African Economic Community promises to be the smartest--and the fastest-growing--club in Africa.

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