This chapter, together with Chapter 1, introduces the four East African liberation movements individually and as part of a distinct collective, a collective whose politico-military leadership would push to re-structure regional politics in the decade that followed its ascent to power. In doing so, the chapters delineate not only the ideas and relationships developed in the bush that would later shape regional politics but also how these ideas and relationships were themselves constantly shaped and re-shaped by contingency and context – as they would continue to be following victory. Chapter 2 focuses on the four movements’ liberation struggles themselves, explaining how support structures, wartime experiences and the manner in which each liberation struggle ended moulded each movement and its elite and set it on a particular path in the post-liberation era.

This chapter, together with Chapter 2, introduces the four East African liberation movements individually and as part of a distinct collective, a collective whose politico-military leadership would push to re-structure regional politics in the decade that followed its ascent to power. In doing so, the chapters delineate not only the ideas and relationships developed in the bush that would later shape regional politics but also how these ideas and relationships were themselves constantly shaped and re-shaped by contingency and context – as they would continue to be following victory. Chapter 1 focuses on the movements as ideological and social entities, charting the ideational, sociopolitical and organisational underpinnings of each, and their links to one another.