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WiSe 17/18: Colonial War, Civil War, Cold War: Angola, 1960s-1990s

Christoph Kalter

Kommentar

On November 11, 1975, the independence of Angola from Portugal ended centuries of colonial domination and thirteen years of an embittered war for national liberation (1961-74). However, independence did not bring peace. In the capital Luanda, Agostinho Neto, the leader of the national liberation movement MPLA and Angola’s first president, addressed huge crowds that cheered as the new country's flag was raised at midnight. At the same time, the competing liberation movements FNLA and UNITA set up a rival government some 500 kilometers further south in the city of Huambo. The Angolan civil war had begun. When it ended in 2003, around 500,000 people had died and approximately one million had been forcibly displaced.
At the crossroads of Cold War studies, African history, and Portuguese history, this seminar looks into how Angola crystallized the entangled dynamics of violent decolonization, the global Cold War, as well as local and regional politics in Southern Africa from the 1960s through the early 1990s. The colonial war, itself a conflict fought also on the international front and shaped by transnational entanglements, fed directly into the Angolan civil war, which in turn quickly became a proxy war with direct involvement of South Africa, the US, the Soviet Union, and Cuba, all in the midst of a détente period of Cold War politics. Focusing on the political, social, and cultural aspects of Portugal’s late colonial rule and the civil war’s history up to the first free and multi-party elections in Angola in 1992, this seminar aims to provide students with an exciting insight into the connective and disruptive power of postcolonial war and conflict.

Course Requirements: In order to successfully complete the course, you must meet the following requirements: A. regular and active participation; B. preparation and introduction of the discussion for one of our classes; C. seminar paper (optional; specifics depend on your module). Schließen

15 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Di, 12:00 - 14:00 15 Termine

Di, 17.10.2017 12:00 - 14:00

Dozenten:
Dr. Christoph Kalter