Chris Saunders

Lena Dallywater

Helder Adegar Fonseca

It is now widely recognised that a Cold War perspective falls short in unfolding the complex geographies of connections and the multipolarity of actions and transactions that were shaped through the movement of individuals and ideas from Africa to the "East" and from the "East" to Africa in the decades in which African countries moved to independence. Adopting an interdisciplinary, transregional perspective, this volume casts new light on aspects of the role of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the decolonisation of Africa. Taking further themes explored in a collection of essays published by the editors in 2019, the twelve case studies by authors from South Africa, Czech Republic, Portugal, Russia, Hungary, Italy, Canada, Serbia, and Germany draw on new sources to explore the history of the ties that existed between African liberation movements and the socialist bloc, some of which continue to influence relationships today. Chapters contribute to three relevant main themes that resonate in a number of scholarly fields of inquiry, ranging from Global Studies, Transregional Studies, Cold War Studies, (Global) History to African Studies, Eastern European, Russian and Slavic Studies: Reconsiderations, Resources, and Reverberations. Drawing upon newly opened archives and combining transregional perspectives with sources in different languages, chapters explicitly point out the shortcomings of past research and debates in the respective field. They highlight new avenues which have been developing and which need to be further developed (Reconsiderations). Selected case studies address the resources of those being active and involved in decolonisation processes, be it in East, North, West and South. They reveal: Which resources (both material and intellectual) are the actors drawing upon? On the other hand: From which resources are individuals on one side or the other reciprocally or intermittently (intentionally) kept away? (Resources). Finally, the third theme puts an emphasis on the historicity of the processes depicted. Studies point to the gaps and dead ends of international support, the paths that peter out, but also to repercussions and reverberations up until today. (Reverberations) Taken these three themes together, the individual chapters contribute to the overall question of: Which general historical narratives about the second half of the 20th century are changing based on these new research findings?

New Perspectives on the Era of Decolonization, 1950s to 1990s

Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa

In the global context of the Cold War, the relationship between liberation movements and Eastern European states obviously changed and transformed. Similarly, forms of (material) aid and (ideological) encouragement underwent changes over time. The articles assembled in this volume argue that the traditional Cold War geography of bi-polar competition with the United States is not sufficient to fully grasp these transformations. The question of which side of the ideological divide was more successful (or lucky) in impacting actors and societies in the global south is still relevant, yet the Cold War perspective falls short in unfolding the complex geographies of connections and the multipolarity of actions and transactions that exists until today. Acknowledging the complexities of liberation movements in globalization processes, the papers thus argue that activities need to be understood in their local context, including personal agendas and internal conflicts, rather than relying primarily on the traditional frame of Cold War competition. They point to the agency of individual activists in both "Africa" and "Eastern Europe" and the lessons, practices and languages that were derived from their often contradictory encounters. In Southern African Liberation Movements, authors from South Africa, Portugal, Austria and Germany ask: What role did actors in both Southern Africa and Eastern Europe play? What can we learn by looking at biographies in a time of increasing racial and international conflict? And which "creative solutions" need to be found, to combine efforts of actors from various ideological camps? Building on archival sources from various regions in different languages, case studies presented in the edition try to encounter the lack of a coherent state of the art. They aim at combining the sometimes scarce sources with qualitative interviews to give answers to the many open questions regarding Southern African liberation movements and their connections to the "East".

Helder Adegar Fonseca

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