In light of this, it is apparent that history is about to repeat itself seeing what is happening now and what happened in the years 1950s and 1970s, when many African states gained independence from the West.
Many African states gained independence during this period, while unfortunately, the Cold War was at its peak between the United States and the then-Soviet Union. consequently, Africa was caught in the crossfire to say so, and many of the events that unfolded at the time never benefited Africa. The effects of the Cold War were evident in Africa. Even if the bullets were not shot directly at Africa, these were felt or heard by Africa and the wounds are still visible even today.
There are a number of arguments that the independence movements in Africa at that time were the result of a foreign policy divergence between the United States of the then-Soviet Union. And as Jay Dee noted in his work, Cold War Independence in Africa, the cold war was a scramble for Africa. Many African states fell into the containment of realities, unclear foreign policy of the Union Soviet, and anti-Americans became more prevalent.
Will history repeat itself? Has Russia lived up to its expectations? Will Russia live up to expectations now?
Before the Cold War, many African states were closer and friendlier controlled countries of the United States, and these countries saw the Cold War as an opportunity to break up from that American tie, consequently, many pledged allegiance to Russia expecting Russia’s support or expecting that Russia will emerge victorious…. but there was no victory, unfortunately, Russia did not live up to expectation after the end of the cold war. Many African states that pledged allegiance were left in disgrace afterward. Maybe for Russia, the wounds that the USA afflicted it were unimaginable, and it needed to first recover before it can think of those other allied nations.
But will Russia live up to its expectations this time around and protect those African states that will pledge allegiance?
The current conflict in Ukraine and the current coups movements in a number of French-dominated African states or the current position of many African states regarding Russian-western relations show that history is about to repeat itself but whether these African states do learn from the past remains to be seen.
After and during the cold war, many movements or leaders that pledged allegiance to Russia were either eliminated (e.g Lumumba of Congo…) or removed from power but Russia did little to intervene or nothing to stop or little to protect African interests or leaders after and during the cold war and those nations that were victims.
Will history repeat itself? Will Russia live up to its expectation this time around…..?
….. to be continued
Janot Rukungira
