East German relations with sub-Saharan Africa: proletarian internationalism vs. "mutual advantage"
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
This paper will look at the political economy of relations between
the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the countries of sub-Saharan
Africa. These relations have generated a considerable amount of interest
in the West in the past decade, as the former Portuguese colonies of
Angola and Mozambique gained their independence and opted for a close
alliance with the socialist countries. Almost coinciding with these
events, the ancient monarchy in Ethiopia was overthrown by a
revolutionary movement which allied itself increasingly with the Soviet
Union and its Eastern European allies. Relations between the GDR and
these three African countries thus became particularly close, leading to
a certain amount of hysteria in certain Western circles about the
possibility of the entire "black continent" going "red." The GDR was seen
by these observers to be a tool for spreading Soviet hegemonic ambitions
to the African
Description
African Studies Center Working Paper No. 100
License
Copyright © 1985, by the author.