Zinduka is a Kiswahili word which literary translates to a re-awakening of consciousness. Zinduka Festival is a forum for re-awakening the consciousness of the people to engage in the process of East African integration and Pan-Africanism through common struggles for socio-economic and political liberation. It offers East African citizens from all walks of life, and organizations from diverse sectors, an opportunity to celebrate the vibrant East African diversities; as well as share our successes and challenges as we pursue the region's economic and political liberation. The inaugural Zinduka Festival was held between May 30 and June 1, 2013 in Arusha, Tanzania. This year’s Zinduka festival will be held in the capital Kampala of the Republic of Uganda in the month of November 2017. Zinduka is predicated on the belief that true change is only possible when people become agency for change and not merely beneficiaries or victims. It is about raising problems facing the people and providing solutions, and about hope; giving a youthful generation hope for a better Africa. Zinduka is about enabling people and communities realize turning points for rising; how much is Africa rising for the people and their communities; but perhaps more importantly, are the people and communities finding a turning point for rising? A true reflection is through people changing their conditions by getting involved, participating and making things happen. Here we deal with questions such as: What changes do East Africans want or need? Do we have unanimity between the changes people yearn for and those the leaders are pursuing? Does the integration process provide real cleavages for change? How can citizens seize the moment and shape their own destiny? 2.0 Background to Zinduka Festival Based on the need of a people-centered and driven integration as envisaged in Article 127(3) and (4) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC), Zinduka Festival, a Pan African movement founded on human rights and social justice, is committed on catalyzing citizenry engagement in the East African integration, as well as strengthening bonds of solidarity between East Africans. Given the growing need to engage and empower East Africans to enhance their contribution to the integration process, Under the theme 'Inclusive integration; Bonds that Last' the 2017 Zinduka Festival will bring together representatives from the grassroots social movements and communities, national and regional CSOs, artists and activists, public intellectuals and policy-makers and the media into a space for intense reflection, celebrations and contribution to the emerging new Africa. A lot of discussions within and outside policy and power corridors happen with little or no input from ordinary citizens. While the EAC Treaty declares commitment to a people-centered integration process, this remains largely a hollow promissory note to the extent that there is no mechanism for an effective young people's participation or engagement in the process. The closest is perhaps the EAC’s Secretary General Forum, in which the civil society participates through the East Africa Civil Society Forum (EACSOF). But the need to deepen its roots and to anchor it in the people's needs and realities can hardly be gainsaid. Without it, this Forum will not only lose relevance, but will indeed mimic and suffer the inadequacies of the existing limited institutional architecture and theoretical framework. The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) which is in theory the representative of the people, is in fact a remote forum accessible largely only to the states, sponsoring political parties and influential business interests. Therefore, there exists a real gap in the architecture for translating the good theoretical intentions into effective reality of a people-centred integration process. Zinduka Festival is an agent of this necessity. 3.0 The rationale of Zinduka Festival Given the growing need to engage and empower East Africans to enhance their contribution to the integration process, the Zinduka Organizing Committee has been organizing the Zinduka Festival every year since 2013. The aim of the Festival is to provide a regional platform to promote dialogue among East Africans and to strengthen advocacy in regional integration initiatives. The East African Community consists of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and the recently admitted South Sudan. The Community brings together about 158 million people, with a combined GDP of over USD 148 billion (http://www.eac.int/statistics/ retrieved on September 16, 2016), massive natural resources and a rich and diverse cultural heritage. However, this has not translated into economic and social outcomes for the vast majority of the populace. Many of the causes for East Africa's underperformance are self-inflicted. They include corruption and wastage of public resource, authoritarianism, illicit capital flows, mismanagement of natural resources that has resulted into mass youth unemployment in the region. Established in July 2000, the new Community aims to integrate the region's peoples and markets based on lessons learned from the old one. The then Community, which consisted of only Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, collapsed in 1977 due to political and ideological differences among the political leaders of these countries resulting in massive disruptions and loss of 60 years of collaboration. But the collapse was, as is now widely acknowledged, due to a lack of involvement of and ownership by the people. The new Community has committed, at least in theory, to correct the defect by making the current integration process people-driven and people-centred. In practice there is no difference between the current and the previous process as the people are largely spectators. This has left a huge gap between political rhetoric and reality that needs bridging. Zinduka is therefore a creative response to this gap. While the first four Zinduka Festivals were important for proof of concept, the fifth Zinduka Festival will be critical in scaling reach and impact.