13.05. Eric Burton & Katherina Föger (Hubs of Decolonization. African Liberation Movements in Cairo, Accra, and Dar es Salaam, 1956-1966.)

Global History Colloquium, 13 May 2024, 16h15-17h45 (in person)

FU Berlin, FMI, Room A336, Koserstr. 20, 14195 Berlin

Abstract:

In the late 1950s and 1960s, nodes of anticolonial activity shifted from colonial metropoles such as Paris, London, or Lisbon to post-colonial African states pursuing an anti-imperialist foreign policy. Cairo, Accra, and Dar es Salaam were among the most vibrant hubs, where numerous organizations fighting colonialism and apartheid opened offices and established connections in the global Cold War world to gain resources and legitimacy. Through their everyday activities in these capitals, leaders and often-neglected second-rank representatives of numerous African liberation movements were also co-producers of anticolonial media and evolving support infrastructures. The institutionalization of anticolonial support was, however, contested and partly short-lived. Despite the official rhetoric of Pan-African solidarity, efforts to manage material flows, craft anticolonial mediascapes, and regulate (im-)mobilities were shaped by inter-African tensions among elites and the rank-and-file, exiles and host governments, rivalling patrons, and competing organizations. As a result, from the mid-1960s onwards, the era of strongly centralized hubs gave way to spatially more fragmented and decentralized forms of anticolonial support.