BLST 388 Africa and the Cold War
This course explores Africa as a pivotal—though often marginalized theater—in the Cold War—the geopolitical struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union for absolute political, economic and military dominance. Moving beyond traditional narratives centered on superpower rivalry, this course reframes the conflict as a global struggle for decolonization and economic and political sovereignty waged by nations of the Global South against the imperial domination of the Global North. Foregrounding African agency, we examine how African states and movements challenged foreign intervention, economic dependency and Cold War realpolitik through radical projects of anti-colonial worldmaking, revolutionary socialism and radical pan-Africanism. We also investigate how states managed and contested control over Africa’s immense natural resource wealth—a central theme of the Cold War–and how they resisted, negotiated and redefined competing visions of the continent’s future. Ultimately, this course invites students to rethink the Cold War as a global history of liberatory struggle to reclaim political and economic autonomy and to remake the postcolonial world through revolutionary ideologies and transnational solidarity.
Cross Listed Courses
HIST 388