Africa stands today at the crossroads of a great power contest, its future hanging in the balance. The ever-powerful United States, a resurgent Russia, and a calculating China once again vie for dominance. 

As Sub- Saharan African countries assertively pursue development – despite being constantly plagued by poverty, ethnic strife and rent seeking elites – old wounds reopen and new ones are inevitably wrought in a tug-of-war between titans.

To decode what could come next, we must first revisit the Cold War – when decolonisation collided with superpower ambitions, setting the stage for ruthless realpolitik that continues to determine the continent’s future. 

The “Wind of Change” that British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan wisely foresaw swept across Africa during the late 1950s and early 1960s, marking the simultaneous emergence of Cold War tensions and decolonisation on the continent. Buoyed by the mineral wealth and vulnerability of the newly independent African nations, the United States and the USSR swooped in to secure their economic and strategic interests, with the pivotal aim of minimising each other’s gains and acquiring proxies. 

The internationalisation of African freedom struggles led by liberation fronts waging revolutionary wars against their respective colonial masters compelled superpower involvement. The US and the USSR competed fiercely to provide considerable, conditional assistance to African belligerents as a ploy to diminish the other’s influence,  leading to heightened Cold War rivalries.

The reluctance of  European states to surrender their African possessions – driven by economic  dependence and domestic nationalist opposition to decolonisation – empowered the Eastern bloc to successfully penetrate Africa for the first time by recognising the aspirations of the marginalised native majority.

The sinister actions of both power blocs undoubtedly signifies a “Second Scramble for Africa” now driven by Cold War tensions.

The Game of Loans : From Guinea’s Gambles to Ghana’s Gambits 

The intertwinement of the superpowers’ global ideological clashes with Africa’s economic development vividly manifested Cold War tensions during the late 1950s and early 1960s.  CPSU General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev’s pointed challenge to the West – “Let us verify in practice whose system is better…, let us compete without war”, emphasised Moscow’s policy of exporting its Socialist model of economic development to West Africa and overseeing its implementation.

Aiming to checkmate the Western bloc, Moscow attempted to fulfil the ‘Guinean dream’ by transforming the impoverished nation into a showpiece of Soviet modernity in Africa. Unsurprisingly, the Western bloc attempted to beat the Soviets at their own game by persuading neighbouring Ghana to adopt free trade and private enterprise as the foundations of economic progress.

Although Guinea was ruled by the fiercely anti-colonialist and Marxist leaning President Sekou Touré, his regime wasn’t averse to soliciting economic aid from both superpowers. The ‘ideologically uncommitted’ Touré accepted complimentary arms, Czech economic advisors and massive low interest loans from Moscow but later dismantled diplomatic ties with his Soviet ‘benefactors’ in favour of Washington which offered to bail the nation out of its self-inflicted economic crisis. Touré had blissfully squandered Soviet aid on personal prestige projects such as a presidential palace, grand national stadium and new hotels…

The Soviets retaliated by successfully wooing Ghana’s pan-Africanist and Socialist sympathising President Kwame Nkrumah, thereby breaking American influence over the Gold Coast. Nkrumah replicated the USSRs economic model by initiating the Seven-Year Development Plan and founded the Ideological Institute at Winneba to indoctrinate party members and aspiring leaders in Marxist Leninist theory and Pan-Africanism. 

Rumble in the Jungle : Democracy Dies for Diamonds

The treasure trove of Africa, the Congo was not only valued for its rich mineral deposits but also for its strategic importance. Winning its independence from Belgium in 1959 after a series of political disturbances the Congolese Nationalist Party led by Patrice Lumumba emerged victorious in the elections. As a vociferous critic of colonialism , President Lumumba immediately fell foul of the West due his leftist sympathies and growing closeness to Moscow. 

Washington’s concern that the Congolese province of Katanga’s plentiful uranium reserves would fall into Soviet hands was also the final straw for Belgium, whose most powerful financial group – Societ’e Gènérale de Belgique feared that Lumumba would end its almost exclusive control (70%) over the Congolese economy particularly the invaluable diamond mines.  

Inevitably, Belgium invaded the Congo under the pretext of humanitarian grounds with the blessings of the United States to protect its interests by facilitating the secession of its proxy province, Katanga. The subsequent murder of Lumumba by Katangese separatists and the use of white mercenaries to secure the province’ prized riches signified the Western bloc would go to any perilous extent to retain its hegemony over their old colonies and to check the rise of the USSR’s growing ascendancy in the region

The Soviets viewed the Belgian invasion of the Congo with tacit US endorsement as a brazen plot to recolonise the country. Khrushchev’s threat to commence armed Soviet intervention in response to Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba’s SOS for military assistance and the arrival of a Communist Cuban contingent led by Che Guevara himself undoubtedly confirmed that the Cold War was willingly exported to Africa by both power blocs while in pursuit of their ideological and economic objectives. 

Comrades and Colonies : The Red Rise in Southern Africa 

Unlike Great Britain and France which could maintain fruitful relationships with its erstwhile colonies,  Portugal’s underdeveloped economy under the Fascist regime of Antonio Salazar (who unsurprisingly abhorred decolonisation) was dependent on exploiting cheap labour and raw materials from its African ‘possessions’ – Angola and Mozambique leading to inevitable armed struggle for independence. 

Western policy makers were wary of Black Majority Rule as they feared the Soviets would gain a major foothold in the region by catering to radical  groups with Marxist sympathies. The Eastern bloc in general and China in particular funded and armed Communist insurgents in Southern Africa.

Although Moscow’s involvement in the Mozambican and Angolan war of Independence was minimal, its Communist competitors – China and Cuba more than made up for its absence by lavishing revolutionary organisations such as the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) and FRELIMO with arms and aid. The United States half heartedly supported the colonial administration during the liberation wars.

However, the atrocious human rights record of Marxist revolutionary groups, especially the MPLA undermined the credibility of decolonisation movements in Angola and Southern Africa. Critics of Communism and human rights watchdogs argued that the guerrillas dutifully replicated the draconian despotism of their benefactors 

Africa transformed into a ‘Containment’ battlefield as the US and its European allies – the erstwhile colonial powers strived to check the Soviet bloc’s growing ideological and economic influence across the continent. Yet African leaders also imported Cold War tensions onto their own shores by attempting to milk the superpower rivalry for their needs.

Arguably, the legacy of the Cold War impacts present day power struggles in Africa even more profoundly than Colonialism. The United States, Russia and China gained ascendancy at the expense of Britain and France whose influence has eroded significantly. 

The Cold War’s shadow never truly vanished, at least not in Africa! Superpower backed mercenaries still mount regime toppling  coups, strategic alliances forged then still remain intact and competitive economic contests to gain allies are well and truly on. 

And the motive? A feverish scramble by states and superpowers alike for what King Leopold of Belgium once crudely called “this magnificent African cake“ , a prize worth having and a prize worth taking !

References

Best, Antony, et al, International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Routledge, 2015).

Iandolo, Alessandro, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Model of Development in West Africa, 1957-1964,’ Cold War History, 12, 4, November 2012 , pp.683-704.

Schmidt, Elizabeth, Foreign Intervention in Africa , Cambridge University Press , 2013).

Written by Pranav, final year BSc International Relations Student (UOL and LSE)