These essays review Africa's economic perfomance over the last two decades from a contemporary historical perspective and also the literature. They argue that the problem in East Africa is the lack of integration into a world economy and culture; and simultaneously, the African way of life developing as a hybrid of ideas, values and behaviour which erodes independent/national identities and political and economic life. Coping mechanisms/agents of resistance are under- researched, but will include the national institutions, universities, and the state itself, in promoting the interests of...