Abstract
Once they became independent most post-colonial societies were interested in their own stability and economic development. These preoccupations also extended to the sphere of foreign relations, where the new states were reluctant to become involved in squabbles which had nothing to do with themselves. None wished to be tied too closely to the military blocs, especially NATO. If the choice of non-alignment appeared to be anti-Western it was because Africa was tied in almost every other respect to the Western world. In the aftermath of independence, most states found themselves enmeshed by a web of interests and sympathies which bound them closely to the former metropolitan powers. As Kwame Nkrumah admitted, Africa could not cancel out 100 years of history overnight, and history had brought Africa and Europe into close communion. The signs of dependency were much the same: limited resources, inadequate bases of political support, in the majority of cases close military, financial and political ties with Europe.1
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Notes and References
Many of the ties which bound the United Kingdom and Anglophone Africa had loosened considerably by the mid-1960s. When sterling was devalued in 1967 only two African countries followed suit. In Francophone Africa the story was somewhat different. When France devalued the franc in 1969 every African country in the franc zone devalued accordingly. Clearly military weakness is not the whole story.
Kwame Nkrumah, ‘African Prospects’, Foreign Affairs, 37:1, October 1958, p. 48.
Sylvanus Olympio, ‘African Problems and the Cold War’, Foreign Affairs 40:1, October 1961, p. 52.
Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-colonialsm: the Last Stage of Imperialism (London, 1965) p. xi.
For example, there was no great rush on the part of Eastern Europe to open up legations during the African independence wave of the 1960s. While relations were established relatively quickly with some states (notably Kenya, Guinea and Mali), others such as the Central African Republic, Gabon and Chad, it took from six to 16 years or longer. Poland established formal diplomatic links with Chad only in 1979.
Kenneth Kaunda. Opening address, third non-aligned conference, Lusaka 8–10 September, 1970, Africa Contemporary Record 1970–1 (London: Rex Collings, 1971) p. C42.
Julius Nyerere. Opening address to preparatory meeting of non-aligned countries, Dar-es-Salaam, 13 April 1970, ibid.
R. M. Akwei, ‘Brief on Ghana’s Foreign Policy towards the Americas’, Conference Paper, 19 1962, p. 201.
John Schlegel, The Deceptive Ash: Bilingualism and Canadian Policy in Africa 1957–71 (University Press of America, 1978) p. 120.
Ibid., p. 327.
Cited Laurence Martin (ed.), Neutralism and Non-Alignment: The New States in World Affairs (New York: Praeger, 1962) p. 6.
Cited Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and People, 640th meeting, 30 September 1968, A/AC 109/SR 640 p. 16.
Cited Olajide Aluko, ‘The Determinants of the Foreign Policies of African States’, in O. Aluko (ed.), The Foreign Policies of African States (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977) p. 20, n. 36.
See in particular the Report of the ad hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean, UN General Assembly, 33rd Session, Supplement no. 29 (A/33ù29, 1978).
Statement of George Vest, Director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, Department of State, Diego Garcia 1975: The Debate over the Base and the Island’s Former Inhabitants. Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee of International Relations, House of Representatives, 94th Congress, 1st Session, 1975, p. 4.
Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, AùAC 109ùSR 638, 1 October 1968.
Cited B. D. Hassan, ‘Big Power Rivalry in the Indian Ocean: A Tanzanian View’, Africa Quarterly, 15:3 1976, p. 82.
UN Doc A/AC 159/SR 139, 1 June 1981, p. 3.
Cited Philip Allen, ‘The Indian Ocean: Very Much at Sea’, Africa Contemporary Record 1981–2 (London: Rex Collings 1982) p. A135.
International Herald Tribune, 5 July 1980.
Dieter Braun, The Indian Ocean: Region of Conflict or Peace Zone? (London: Hurst and Co., 1983) p. 45.
Isebill V. Gruhn, ‘British Arms Sales to South Africa: The Limits of African Diplomacy’, Studies in Race and Nations, 3 (Colorado: University of Denver, 1972).
Schlegel, The Deceptive Ash, op. cit., pp. 357–58.
‘Call for an end to all military cooperation with South Africa’, Unit on Apartheid, Notes and Documents, 18/73, October 1973.
Survey of reports in Africa Research Bulletin compiled by Africa Contemporary Record 1970–1, op. cit., pp. C20–3.
See P. M. Allen, ‘Rites of Passage in Madagascar’, Africa Report, 17 February 1971.
As late as 1977, Sir Alec Douglas-Home reiterated his amazement that the Africans still did not understand the strategic importance of the Cape route, whatever their feelings about South Africa. Africa Confidential 18:8, 15 April 1977.
Statement by Julius Nyerere, October 1970, cited Africa Contemporary Record 1970–1, op. cit., pp. C20–3.
Cited Rupert Emerson, Africa and US Policy (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1967) p. 73.
Julius Nyerere in Africa Contemporary Record 1969–70 (London: Rex Collings, 1970) pp. C30–9.
Cited Objective Justice 4:2, April/May/June 1972.
Olave Stokke/Carl Widstrand (eds.), The UN-OAU Conference on Southern Africa (Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1973).
Ibid., pp. 69–71.
Michael Degnan, ‘Mozambique’s Three Wars’, Africa Report, 18:5, September/October 1973, p. 13.
Stokke/Widstrand, The UN-OAU Conference, op. cit., p. 106.
James Dougherty, ‘The Aswan Decision in Perspective’, Political Science Quarterly, 74, March 1959, p. 32.
The Guardian, 8 June 1978.
Speech delivered by Samora Machel to 15th Summit Meeting of Heads of State and Government, OAU Khartoum 18/21 July 1978, reprinted Africa Currents, 12/13, Autumn/Winter 1978/9, p. 14.
Newsweek, 9 June 1978.
Le Figaro (Paris), 19 June 1978.
Speech delivered by Olusegun Obasanjo to 15th Summit Meeting of Heads of State and Government, OAU Khartoum, reprinted Africa Currents, op. cit., p. 9.
Africa 83, July 1978.
CM/Res 635, XXXI, 1978.
CM/Res 641, XXXI, 1978.
International Herald Tribune, 2 March 1979.
Cited Kenneth Adelman, African Realities (New York: Crane, Russak and Co., 1980) p. 139.
The New York Times, 28 January 1976.
The New York Times, 2 February 1976.
The Washington Post, 12 January 1976. Angostinho Neto made the same point in an interview with Rene Lefort in Le Monde, reprinted in Africa Report, January/February 1976.
The Washington Post, ibid.
The New York Times, 9 December 1976.
Julius Nyerere, ‘America and Southern Africa’, Foreign Affairs, 55:4, July 1977, p. 676.
Text of an address by Henry A. Kissinger to St. Louis World Affairs Council, 12 May 1975. Department of State Bulletin, 82:1875, 2 June 1975, p. 709.
The Financial Times, 5 February 1976.
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Coker, C. (1985). Africa, the Western Alliance and the Soviet Challenge, 1961–78. In: NATO, The Warsaw Pact and Africa. Rusi Defence Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17884-1_10
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