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- Convenors:
-
Lena Dallywater
(Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography)
Helder Adegar Fonseca (University of Évora)
Chris Saunders (University of Cape Town)
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- Discussant:
-
Robin E. Möser
(University of Potsdam)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Perspectives on current crises
- Location:
- S62 (RW I)
- Sessions:
- Monday 30 September, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
In the process of African decolonization, key moments in the political transition from colonial/white-ruled states to new independent majority-ruled states can be identified. The round table discussion focuses on the roles of communist actors in these transitions from a comparative perspective.
Long Abstract:
In the long and protracted process of decolonization in sub-Saharan Africa, a number of key moments in the political transition from colonial/white-ruled states to new independent majority-ruled states can be identified: the first (1957-1965), the second (1974-1977) and the third (1989-1994). The existing literature does not consider the roles of communist actors in these transitions from a comparative perspective. With the second thematic stream “Perspectives on current crises” in mind, the round table participants look back into the past of African decolonial transitions, and scrutinize actors and agents of change at the moments of evolutionary or revolutionary political transition for sovereignty and its consolidation. Political transitions are complex processes, a shift from one set of political procedures to another, from an old pattern of rule to a new one. It is an interval of intense political uncertainty during which the shape of the new institutional dispensation is established in a democratic, consensual or, more frequently, in a conflicting or “violent” manner. Participants unravel cases from Lusophone, Francophone, and Anglophone settings, to revisit and compare, and to discuss which ‘experts’, which ‘strategies’ lead to actual outcomes of negotiations in moments of crises, and who’s ideas are sidelined, and which transfers fail(ed). Although the round table is historically oriented, it thus provides food for thought for current global upheavals with consequences for societies on the African continent, and it connects with other projects on the history of entanglements of African actors and societies in the 'East' (see, e.g., Schade, Lazic, Záhořík).
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 30 September, 2024, -Chris Saunders (University of Cape Town)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will consider the role of various communist actors in the political transitions that took Namibia to independence in 1990 and South Africa from apartheid to democracy in the early 1990s: Cuba, the Soviet Union and the South African Communist Party.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will consider the role of various communist actors in the political transitions that took Namibia to independence in 1990 and South Africa from apartheid to democracy in the early 1990s. Cuba played a key role in the military conflict that led to the angola/Namibia accord of December 1988 that paved the way for Namibian independence, and the way in which Namibia moved to independence in turn made possible the transition in south Africa. But whereas there was no communist party in Namibia, and only a few leading Namibians retained a strong commitment to communist ideology, in South Africa the South African Communist Party (SACP) had by the late 1980s been closely tied to the Soviet Union for decades. While the Soviets, and to a lesser extent the German Democratic Republic, provided weapons and military training to the armed wings of the two liberation movements, in the late 1980s, under Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviets sought to promote peaceful settlements to the southern African conflicts. While international communism played no role in the south African transition, leading figures in the SACP were influential, in often surprising ways, in helping to shape South Africa’s political transition. This paper will try to bring out the nuances in the story of the two transitions and will offer reflections on how they were similar and different, and why.
Tycho van der Hoog (Netherlands Defence Academy)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines an overlooked aspect of North Korea's role in African decolonial transitions: the development of a new global order. Using the 1987 Pyongyang Conference for South-South Cooperation as a case study, this paper discusses the North Korean-African attempts at worldmaking.
Paper long abstract:
This chapter examines North Korea’s involvement in African decolonial transitions. The reign of Kim Il Sung (1948-1994) coincided with the gradual liberation of the African continent, and North Korea provided assistance to a variety of African liberation movements and postcolonial governments. North Korea helped African political elites to achieve and consolidate national independence, while in return North Korea received support in the United Nations and hard foreign currency.
This chapter argues that North Korean-African cooperation went a step further: North Koreans and Africans discussed the development of a new global order. The Pyongyang Conference for South-South Cooperation, held in 1987, is a window into this overlooked dimension of North Korea’s role in African decolonial transitions. ‘Let us develop South-South cooperation’ said Kim in 1987 at the Pyongyang conference, a message that resonated with African political elites highly invested in world-making.
This chapter thus moves beyond a pragmatic, transactional understanding of North Korean-African relations and examines the idealism behind Kim Il Sung’s connections to the African continent. The Pyongyang conference has so far been ignored in the historiography, but a recent discovery of South Korean diplomatic cables makes it possible to produce the first description and analysis of this event. It offers an opportunity to interrogate larger analytical questions, such as North Korea’s role in the Cold War, the importance of Africa for North Korean diplomacy, and the question whether North Korean behavior was motivated by ideology or pragmatism.
Helder Adegar Fonseca (University of Évora) João Fusco Ribeiro (University of Évora - Political Science Research Centre (CICP))
Paper short abstract:
This paper deals with the involvement of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL) in the Angolan decolonization process. Using a comparative approach, it aims to explore how Warsaw’s engagement in Angola differed from that of other communist actors.
Paper long abstract:
The relations between the countries of the Soviet bloc (Global East) and the decolonized states of the Global South have been a particular subject of analysis by historians focused on the agency of both peripheries in creating transcontinental interconnections of “socialist solidarity”. The wave of decolonization that swept across Lusophone Africa (1974-1977), particularly the complex Angolan transition to independence, was an active phase in the development of these links with the communist world, even with socialist states that were until then reluctant to become entangled in the competitive dynamics of the Cold War in Southern Africa. Recent historiography argues that the involvement of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL-Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa) in Africa was comparatively cautious and small-scale, based on a pragmatic approach guided by economic considerations and relatively independent of the Kremlin (see Gasztold 2018, 2023, Puchalski 2023, Knopek 2023). In this paper, exploring Polish archives systematically, we dialogue with this literature by focusing on the case of the Angolan process of decolonization as a privileged window of observation of the 'hot' Cold War in order to examine Warsaw’s involvement, interactions and motives. Particular emphasis is placed on a comparative approach with other communist actors to explore how Polish engagement in Angola differed from that of other socialist states.
Barbora Menclová (Charles University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper compares Czechoslovakia's strategies towards Angola and Mozambique after 1974. The aim is to contribute to the academic discussion about the approach of the small European state of the East towards two similar countries of the Global South during their transition to independence.
Paper long abstract:
Numerous research in recent years, inspired by the New Cold War History, shows that the smaller states of the Soviet bloc did not just blindly follow Moscow's instructions in the Global South but also pursued their interests there. However, little attention has been paid to comparing their strategies in different states.
The paper compares Czechoslovakia's official strategies towards Angola and Mozambique after 1974. Both Lusophone African states were similar in many aspects (e.g., shared history of Portuguese colonialism and decolonization, language, geography) but different in others (e.g., economic potential, geopolitical importance). The first aim is to explore if Czechoslovakia, a small European socialist state, reflected these differences in its approach. The second aim is to contribute to the academic discussion about the official strategies of a smaller member of the East towards two similar countries of the Global South during their transition to independence. It will be examined by analyzing official strategic documents, main agreements, crucial Czechoslovak projects in both states and the narratives represented in the Czechoslovak media. Where possible, the findings will be confronted with the perspective of other members of the Soviet bloc and African counterparts. The research will be based mainly on declassified archival materials and interviews.
Ana Moledo (Research Centre Global Dynamics, Leipzig University)
Paper short abstract:
This contribution investigates the involvement of expatriates self-identifying as socialists, operating outside the machinery of state socialism, in the development agendas and projects that marked the political transitions in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau in the 1970s and 1980s.
Paper long abstract:
Political, economic and social transitions from empire to nation-state were hugely shaped by debates around development. African postcolonial elites were not alone in addressing these issues, but benefited from the exchanges and experience of a wide range of international actors. Some of these actors played a key role in shaping transitions on the ground, through specific rural development projects, educational and health programs, etc. Cooperation agreements between African and socialist countries were one of the channels that enabled the East-South circulation of experts (Burton 2021; Pieporka 2020) but there were other routes of mobility, usually less formal or without state backing, through which actors who identified themselves as socialist or communist moved – West-South and South-South– to contribute to the transition and ensuing nation-building plans.
This paper aims to offer a first exploration of the role that the development experts, academics and workers that moved southwards outside bilateral/state mobility frameworks played in diverse subfields connected to 1970s and 1980s/90s transitions. Drawing on concrete examples of individuals engaged in the development sector in Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, this contribution broadens the scope of socialist mobilities and exchanges beyond the conventional East-South axis. This provides room to analyse critiques, tensions and alternative visions of politically or ideologically-driven circulations and the impact that a plurality of socialisms had in African decolonial transitions.
Joel Baraka Akilimali (Université Catholique de Louvain Iacchos)
Paper short abstract:
The analysis focuses on the major political and ideological influence exerted by two key political players, Pierre Mulele and Anicet Kashamura, in the process of decolonisation of the Congo and the establishment of the first government, as well as in the continuation of Lumumba's struggle.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation explores the evolution of Patrice Lumumba's socialist consciousness through the pivotal roles of two influential figures, Pierre Mulele and Anicet Kashamura in Lumumba's political action.
Examining Pierre Mulele, the Minister of National Education in Lumumba's government, the analysis portrays him as a key figure who helped shape Lumumba's socialist and communist consciousness. The presentation explains how Mulele's revolutionary ideas gradually shaped Lumumba's political outlook, fostering a more resolute embrace of socialist values and the direction of the Lumumba government's international policy.
By examining Anicet Kashamura, Lumumba's Minister of Information and Culture, the presentation assesses his significant role in influencing the ideologies centred on Lumumba's African consciousness. The paper highlights Kashamura's contributions to the formation of Lumumba's political vision, particularly in the areas of information and culture, emphasising the importance of this influence in the early government.
In addition, the article explores the critical impact of these influences on the decolonisation of the Congo and the establishment of Lumumba's first government. The article looks at the collaborative efforts between Mulele (close to the communist Gizenga) and Kashamura to support the Lumumbist struggle. While Pierre Mulele led Africa's largest peasant revolution, resisting Lumumba's assassination in the midst of an international communist rebellion that engulfed two-thirds of the country, Kashamura left a profound intellectual legacy in the early days of Congo's decolonisation. He was a pioneer in the question of how to reconcile communism with African values, providing insightful perspectives on the mental decolonisation of the Congolese and their public institutions.
Johanna Wetzel (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
Based on novel archival records as well as oral history interviews with high ranking OJM functionaries, this paper explores the relationship between the East German and the nascent Mozambican youth organizatio OJM as one in which power relationships were not as unequal as they seem at first sight.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the role of non-African communist actors in a southern African state through a close analysis of youth as transnational actors. Between 1975 and 1990, the Mozambican liberation movement Frelimo established close relationships with the East German Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth). Central to this relationship was the mutual aim to “construct a mass democratic organisation for youth,” the Organização da Juventude Moçambicana (OJM) in Mozambique under the guidance and following the model of the FDJ. Based on novel records from FDJ’s archives, as well as oral history interviews with high ranking OJM functionaries, this paper explores the relationship between the East German and the nascent Mozambican youth organization as one in which power relationships were not as unequal as they may seem at first sight. While the FDJ viewed the relationship as an opportunity to „propagate the accomplishments of real existing socialism,” OJM functionaries’ expectations of the FDJ’s support were shaped by a much longer history of Youth solidarity. Building on their experience in negotiating solidarity with various communist and non-communist actors during the liberation struggle, the OJM functionaries’ approach to the relationship was shaped by the pursuit of educational opportunities abroad, material funds and personal perks. As such, the OJM was able to engage with the FDJ on their own terms, leaving an archival trace of puzzlement and confusion in the FDJ’s records today.
Amalia Dragani (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales)
Paper short abstract:
As part of African-Soviet student mobilities, between the years 1960 and 1993, around forty young Tuareg and Berabish, including four women, were trained in the Soviet Union, in the former Soviet bloc and Cuba.
Paper long abstract:
As part of African-Soviet student mobilities, between the years 1960 and 1993, around forty young Saharan from Mali and Niger (Tuareg and Berabish), including four women, were trained in the Soviet Union and in the former Soviet bloc, in the technical-scientific sector (medicine, engineering, geology, and chemistry). After an historical contextualization of these international student's trajectories through the difficult process of adapting to institutionalized formal schooling, I analyze their professional and political careers, both in Mali and Niger or in support of the current independence movements. Understanding this part of African post-colonial contemporary history from the point of view of the new elites of nomadic and pastoral origin makes it possible to navigate the social interactions in landlocked regions, situated on the social peripheries of states, in contexts that Veena Das defines as often being 'unreadable' (Das 2004). Based on original, first-hand empirical data, my communication will first focus on these students' strategies, using an ethnographic and biographical approach that aims to capture the student's point of view.