The Ideological Scramble in Africa

How the Dream of African Development shaped a Continental Cold War (1945-1966)

French Institute Seminars in Humanities (FISH)
01 June 2016

15:00 – IFAS Conference Room, 62 Juta Street, Braamfontein

Frank Gerits
NRF / University of the Free State

How could Africa in the mid-1960s become a Cold War battle ground where proxy wars festered up until the 1990s? The colonial experience had made the first generation of African leaders suspicious of outside interference while national development was the top priority. Comprehending this evolution forces us to consider the Ideological Scramble in Africa, a competition between the United States, the Soviet Union, France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Belgium, Ghana and South Africa. Against the background of a smoldering Cold War these countries worked to convince the leaders and peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa of a pan-African, capitalist, communist or white settler plan for the continent as well as a reformed imperial vision for Africa’s future. Specifically, this presentation will focus on South Africa and the way in which Apartheid drove efforts to mould global norms in Africa’s perceived image.

Frank Gerits was a postdoctoral fellow at New York University (2015) and currently an NRF Innovation fellow of the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein (2016). He has published in international journals and is the editor for history, politics, IR and social science at the European Journal of American Studies.