Navigating Socialist Encounters - (Africa in Global History) by Eric Burton & Anne Dietrich & Immanuel Harisch & Marcia Schenck (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This edited volume examines entanglements and disentanglements between Africa and East Germany during and after the Cold War from a global history perspective. Extending the view beyond political elites, it asks for the negotiated and plural character of socialism in these encounters and sheds light on migration, media, development, and solidarity through personal and institutional agency. With its distinctive focus on moorings and unmoorings, the volume shows how the encounters, albeit often brief, significantly influenced both African and East German histories.

From the Back Cover

This edited volume examines entanglements and disentanglements between Africa and East Germany during and after the Cold War from a global history perspective. Extending the view beyond political elites, it asks for the negotiated and plural character of socialism in these encounters and sheds light on migration, media, development, and solidarity through personal and institutional agency. With its distinctive focus on moorings and unmoorings, the volume shows how the encounters, albeit often brief, significantly influenced both African and East German histories.

Review Quotes

"This edited volume [comprised of fourteen chapters and an introduction] contributes significantly to our understanding of the still understudied links between East Germany and the Global South. Each author in the volume unearths a treasure trove of sources that draw, among others, on East German and African archives, oral and micro-histories as well as literary and documentary texts and artifacts. All individual essays are well-written, critically informed, and highly innovative." - Anna Horakova (Harvard University) in German Studies Review (2022) 45/2, 384-386

"This variety of formats sets this edited volume apart from other books on similar topics. Another reason to commend this volume is the range of sources used by its contributors. [...] it should be of great interest not only to students of the GDR and African history but also to all those dealing with postsocialism and the global history of the Cold War." - Yulia Gradskova (Södertörn University) in Ab Imperio (2022) 1, 293-297

About the Author

Eric Burton, Univ. Innsbruck; Anne Dietrich, Univ. Leipzig; Immanuel R. Harisch, Univ. Vienna; Marcia C. Schenck, Univ. Potsdam.