Communist Actors in African Decolonial Transitions: Comparative Perspectives (Dialectics of the Global, 22)

In the long and protracted process of decolonization in sub-Saharan Africa (1957–1994), three key moments in the transitions from colonial/white-ruled states to independent majority-ruled states can be identified: 1957–1965, 1974–1980, and 1988–1994. These transitional phases of decolonization in sub-Saharan Africa – the beginnings of the process, a crucial turning-point in that process, and its endings – are worthy of reappraisal and invite comparisons of various kinds. The existing literature does not consider the roles of communist actors in these transitions from a comparative perspective. This is the main focus of this volume, which will be an essential work for scholars of African decolonization and will interest anyone concerned with the history of communism and the external activities of the countries of the Soviet bloc and other communist actors.

Helder Adegar Fonseca (Univ of Evora), Lena Dallywater (IfLLeipzig), Chris Saunders (Univ of Cape Town)

Helder Adegar Fonseca is Professor Emeritus at the University of Évora, Portugal. After long time researching European economic, agrarian, and social history, he has been devoting the past decade to the project "Historical Sources of Transnational Regionalism in Southern Africa: The Liberation Movements and ‘White Africa’ as Driving Forces (1960–1980) of regional integration".

Chris Saunders is Professor Emeritus of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he was head of the Department of Historical Studies. He has published on many aspects of Southern African history and historiography. Recently, he has worked on the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa and Namibia and on the regional geopolitics of Southern Africa.

Lena Dallywater is a researcher and coordinator at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography Leipzig, Germany. She holds a PhD in Global Studies from Leipzig University. Her research focuses on transnational intellectual history, (Pan-)African philosophy, aesthetics and literature, and modes of Black solidarity in a global perspective.