HOT SPOTS OF THE COLD WAR IN AFRICA
CONTEXT– POST WWII AFRICA
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Education
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Exploitation
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Demobilized troops
DECOLONIZATION TIMELINE
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In 1945, only FOUR nations belonged to UN (Egypt
(1922-1947), South Africa (1910), Liberia (1847),
and Ethiopia (never)
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By 1960, 25 new nations. “Year of Africa”
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By 1984, 45 nations.
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By 2011, 52 nations. (not including S. Sudan or
Western Sahara)
RISE OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM
Pan-Africanism & Neo-colonialism
Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana)
“ The result of neo-colonialism is that
foreign capital is used for the
exploitation rather than for the
development of the less
developed parts of the world.
Investment under neo-colonialism
increases rather than decreases
the gap between the rich and the
poor countries of the world. The
struggle against neo-colonialism
is not aimed at excluding the
capital of the developed world
from operating in less developed
countries. It is aimed at
preventing the financial power of
the developed countries being
used in such a way as to
impoverish the less developed.”
EIGHT STATES AFRICAN CONFERENCE (1958)

“We want to come
together to link
ourselves in a chain so
that no other nation can
pull one of us without
having to cope with the
rest of us.”
Nkrumah (and Nasser).
TWO VISIONS OF AFRICA’S FUTURE- 1961
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Casablanca Group
(morocco, Ghana, Egypt,
Mali, Guinea)
NON-ALIGNMENT IN COLD
WAR (protested neocolonialism)
Wanted single African
government
Monrovia group (19-Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire,
Nigeria, Madagascar, and
others)
Supported continued
economic and political ties
with former colonial rulers
Doubted viability of unity and
were hesitant to share
power with other rulers.
Much of former Francophone
Africa, including Senghor of
Senegal.
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OAU CHARTER (1963 -2002) LATER THE AU

Desire to prevent territorial conflicts between each
other

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Eventual political unification of entire continent (or
at least military cooperation)

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Tempted extra-continental powers to exploit instability
for economic gain.
Wanted to remove pretext for foreign interference in
Africa’s internal affairs
Necessity for neutrality in the Cold war

Principle of non-alignment
COLD WAR PAWNS?

Forestallment of proxy
violence though local
discourse was defined by
these threats.

Outbreak of violence in
1970’s extended Cold
War– Soviet union and
US courted clients and
employed proxies.

Several 100 Soviet
military advisers, 41,000
Cuban troops operated
in a dozen countries by
the 1970’s.
EGYPT (1922-1947)
GHANA (1957)
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=ZqlZUnDsdWE
GUINEA (1958) NON!
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Sekou Toure rejected French
community
“Poverty in liberty to riches in
slavery”
France removed government
documents and destroyed
French infrastructure for com
munication and transport.
Played off aid and access
between US and USSR for
decades (South Africa, Mao,
Cuban Missile Crisis, Angola)
Africa (Lines 18-30)
I am Africa
The Continent of tomorrow!
Neo-colonialism
Ferocious as subtle
Wishes to keep in shackles
Both my Mind and my Wealth.
Of the evils plaguing me still,
Most debasing is irresponsibility
My Peoples, henceforth
Heroic resistants,
Have joined the battle:
Destroying in order to renew.
ETHIOPIA (NEVER COL. & SOMALIA (1960)
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Ethiopia Civil War 1974-1991
Ethiopia under the Derg became
the Socialist bloc’s closest ally in
Africa, and became one of the
best-armed nations of the region
as a result of massive military aid
chiefly from the Soviet Union,
GDR, Cuba and North Korea.
Most industries and private urban
real-estate holdings were
nationalized by the Derg in 1975.
The Derg satisfied its main slogan
of “Land to the Tiller” by
redistributing land once belonging
to landlords to the peasant tilling
the land.
BUT…
OGADEN WAR-1977 (SOMALIA VS ETHIOPIA)
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USSR switched from
supplying aid to Somalia
to supporting Ethiopia
(as well as Cuban
soldiers).
The US then switched to
supporting Somalia
(Somali bases) but so
did China!
ANGOLA (1975)
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Portuguese rule
Angola (oil, strategic
location, mineral
resources)
1975-76 civil war
began--MPLA (oil) vs
UNITA (diamonds)
Soviet and Cuban aid
But MNC Economic
interests
LIBYA (1951)
Qaddafi toppled pro-Western
monarchy in 1969
Nationalized American oil
properties
Closed down American and
British air bases
Received substantial Soviet
military and economic
assistance
Supported Moscow’s foreign
policy
Began to interfere in internal
affairs in Chad, Sudan,
Somalia, and Liberia.
TANZANIA
Julius Nyerere (mwalimu)
 Rejected Western
Capitalism and Sovietstyle communism.
 Self Help policy– African
socialism

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Keep country out of date
“War against poverty”
could use “nationalist
energy”
Build national identity
Built on notions of African
communalism and kinship
SOVIET MOTIVATION

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Desire to expand influence
in region (and cut off western
access to strategic minerals
like copper, titanium and
chromium.
Aided by newly independent
states.
AMERICAN MOTIVATION
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Although supportive of
decolonization, needed
minerals to make jet and rocket
engines, feared socialist
rhetoric of African leaders, and
supported NATO allies
(Portugal).
Settler states in Central and
southern Africa (South Africa,
Rhodesia, and Portugal (Guinea
Bissau .Cape Verde, Angola,
Mozambique)
“THE JOB OF DECOLONIZATION IS NOT DONE
UNTIL ALL OF AFRICA IS FREE.” NKRUME