In 1988, from the intellectual corridors of Dar es Salaam’s Centre for Foreign Relations, a bold voice rose against the tide of global orthodoxy. E.D. Kimbwereza’s dissertation, “Prospects and Limits of South-South Trade Co-operation: The Case of SADCC and PTA”, is more than a study in regional economics—it is a piercing exposé of global hypocrisy and the structural inertia that continues to paralyze African trade integration.
At the heart of this work is a fearless indictment of the post-colonial promise of solidarity. South-South cooperation, championed as an alternative path to development, was envisioned to free developing nations from dependency on the North. Institutions like the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) and the Preferential Trade Area (PTA) were born of this dream, grounded in the Lusaka Declaration and hopes for regional integration. But as Kimbwereza lays bare, the reality has been far less transformative.
“The insanity of poor countries looking at the rich for their economic salvation,” he writes, is both a tragedy and a farce.
His words echo with urgency even today. In a system where rich countries deliver aid with one hand and strategic demands with the other, Kimbwereza exposes a calculated duality: assistance as leverage, not liberation. The rich world’s generosity, he argues, is rarely sacrifice. Rather, it is an investment—strategic, self-serving, and designed to reproduce stability, not justice.
“Such money as is given,” he notes, “can easily be spared and will effectively be repaid, if not in the purchase of machinery and arms, then by some strategic consideration.”
This scathing clarity is not just about trade policies—it is about global psychology. The rich need to believe they are helping, while the poor are conditioned to hope that help will one day be real. In this global theatre, Kimbwereza says, pretence is not only routine; it is essential. Without the illusion of benevolence, the system’s legitimacy would collapse.
But he does not stop at critique. He challenges African nations to stop waiting—to shake off the dream of North-led salvation and instead seize the promise of regional strength. His analysis shows how intra-SADCC trade represented only 4–5% of total trade in the early 1980s, a figure symptomatic of deeper fractures: weak infrastructure, policy misalignment, and most dangerously, lack of shared urgency.
“Will the Third World be ready to seize the initiative or be caught unawares?” he quotes Sri Lanka’s Gamani Corea, former UNCTAD Secretary-General. It’s a question that still haunts African policymakers today.
In Kimbwereza’s work, the call is clear: integration must be more than institutional. It must be philosophical, political, and rooted in a collective identity of interest. Without this, South-South cooperation will remain a slogan—an empty vessel floating in the sea of global economic rhetoric.
The lesson for Africa in 2025 remains unchanged from 1988: stop waiting for aid to trickle down. Build corridors of trust. Forge trade agreements that protect African industries. Create institutions that don’t mirror the global elite’s image but reflect the continent’s needs.
Kimbwereza’s manuscript, yellowed and typed on a vintage typewriter, is a time capsule—but it is also a warning flare. Until African states unite not just on paper but in purpose, South-South trade will remain a myth—and poverty, a permanent condition managed by rich nations under the guise of goodwill.
The future demands more than cooperation. It demands courage.
