Global histories a student journal Conference Review: Africa and the Global Cold War, University of Mekelle, March 2019 Author: Paul Sprute and Maximilian Vogel DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/GHSJ.2019.314 Source: Global Histories, Vol. 5, No. 1 (May 2019), pp. 168-175 ISSN: 2366-780X Copyright © 2019 Paul Sprute and Maximilian Vogel License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Publisher information: ‘Global Histories: A Student Journal’ is an open-access bi-annual journal founded in 2015 by students of the M.A. program Global History at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. ‘Global Histories’ is published by an editorial board of Global History students in association with the Freie Universität Berlin. Freie Universität Berlin Global Histories: A Student Journal Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut Koserstraße 20 14195 Berlin Contact information: For more information, please consult our website www.globalhistories.com or contact the editor at: [email protected]. Africa and the Global Cold War – Conference at the University of Mekelle, March 2019 Reviewed by: PAUL SPRUTE & MAXIMILIAN VOGEL P a u l S Whether it is Addis Abeba’s Tiglachin Monument to the Dergue rule in p r u Ethiopia and the joint struggle of Cuban and Ethiopian soldiers or the only public t e 1 & statue of Karl Marx in Africa (Figure 1), it is hard to avoid stumbling over marks of M a the Cold War in Ethiopia’s capital. While the rapid growth of the economy and x i m i l population, as well as a dizzying construction boom might have changed the i a n outlook of the capital city and the country over the last decades, these spaces V o g remind us that the “Global Cold War” had one of its main theatres in this region. e l | A If one looks underneath recently sealed asphalt roads and turns away from the f r i c a ongoing construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, but instead a n looks at the so-called “China Road“ of the 1970s, or explores the history of the d t h e Yugoslav-built hydrological power plant at the Blue Nile Falls, it becomes clear G l o how much of the current Ethiopian infrastructure is connected to the Cold War as b a 2 l well, indeed holding a multitude of intriguing stories. C o l d Moreover, Ethiopia’s current political system has been firmly rooted in W the outcome of the Cold War. The ruling coalition of regional parties, led by a r - R the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), has come to power by waging an e v i e ultimately successful guerrilla war against the Dergue, finally ousting Mengistu’s w government in 1991—coinciding with the collapse of his sponsors in the Soviet Union. Beyond Addis, monuments are dedicated to this struggle in the capitals of Ethiopia’s federal states. While these stelae in Amhara’s capital Bahir Dar or Tigray’s Mekelle commemorate the emergence of today’s system of rule, the basic political set-up of Ethiopia’s “ethnic federalism” has recently been shaken.3 With the coming into power of the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the unquestioned dominance of the TPLF now seems to belong to the past. At the same time, the prime minister has been able to cut through one of the most strongly and firmly tied Gordian knots that the interlinked forces of (anti-) imperialism and the dynamics of the Cold War have left: the bitter confrontation between the former comrades in arms of the Tigray and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Fronts. Notwithstanding the recent détente between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Horn of Africa remains a hotbed of political upheaval and geopolitical rivalry to be linked to the entangled dynamics of colonialism and the Cold War. Djibouti’s role as a safe haven for six different international navies, the lasting fragmentation of Somalia, but also the devastating war in Yemen and the recent fall of the regime in Sudan make us painfully aware of this fact.4 To put it shortly, there hardly seems to be a place from where it would be more crucial to explore the history of the Global Cold War than Ethiopia, at the center 1 Meskerem Assegued, Demeke Brehane, and Denis Pesut, Public Monuments of Addis Ababa, 1930–2014 (Addis Abeba: Goethe-Institut, 2014), 36–41. 2 For contemporary impressions and some of these stories of Cold War encounters, for example refer to this travelogue of a Soviet engineer in Ethiopia: Georgi Galperin, Äthiopische Reise (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1972). 3 Mahmood Mamdami, “The Trouble with Ethiopia’s Ethnic Federalism,” The New York Times, January 3, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/03/opinion/ethiopia-abiy-ahmed-reforms-ethnic-conflict-ethnic-federalism.html. 4 Gérard Prunier, “Éthiopie-Érythree, Fin des Hostilités,” Le Monde Diplomatique, November 2018, https://www. monde-diplomatique.fr/2018/11/PRUNIER/59209. Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 1 - 2019 169 Paul Sprute & Maximilian Vogel | Africa and the Global Cold War - Review conference was organized in Mekelle on March 25 and 26, 2019. Thestatedgoal onMarch 25and26,2019. conference wasorganizedinMekelle from EthiopiaandGermanyturnedouttobesoproductivethatasecond Erfurt. War” washeldattheUniversityof “Africa andtheGlobalCold first workshopon triggered furthercooperationinthefieldofinternationalhistory. collectionshousedinGotha.Thisinitialproject Perthes on theextensive 2014 withafocusonthecartographichistoryofAbyssinianEmpirebased andErfurt,had initiatedtheircooperationin parties, theUniversitiesofMekelle Thetwoorganizing andtheGlobalColdWar.” of theworkshopseries“Africa of theHornAfrica.Thisthoughtmusthavebeenclosetoorganizers 170 2019, January22, H-Soz-Kult, andtheGlobalCold War,” “Africa 6 Foraconferencereport,please see: PhilippMetzler, php?id=52752&L=1 2019, UniversitätErfurt,accessedApril19, University(Ethiopia),” with Mekelle Cooperation andErfurt,pleasesee:“Research of thecooperationbetweenUniversitiesMekelle 2019, Erfurt, accessedApril19, Universität Collection,” collection,pleasesee:“TheGothaPerthes 5 ForgeneralinformationonthePerthes highlighted howtheEthiopianEmpireultimatelybecame 1950s and1960s.Woldu anddecolonizationinthe oftheColdWar positions againstthebackground shifting focusedmorecloselyonEthiopia’s AbrahaWoldu after independence. byanalyzingthealliancesthatAfricanstatesknit perspectives ontheColdWar African explored MichaelPesek gave muchneededbroaderhistoricalcontext. Firstofall,anumber ofpresentations binding theconferencediscussiontogether. deconstructivist approaches. until todayasstraightforwardinternationalhistoryratherthanonpost-colonialor intheregion anditsgeopoliticaldynamics power dynamicsshapingtheColdWar thegeneral emphasisofdiscussionslayinretracingtheintricate Furthermore, presentations, theoverallconferencediscussionreflectedthisspiritquitewell. contributionsweremadebyindividualconference Whilenoexemplary War. for thestudyofinterlinkagesandinterdependenciesinGlobalCold collaborative researchbridgingdifferentlocalesandscaleswouldholdinsights In regardstomethodologicalapproaches,therewasstrongagreementthat visible. the onlyAfricancountrythatwasnevercolonized—canmake colonization, othersfocusedonthenuancesthataclosestudyofEthiopia—as ontheAfrican continentasaformof suggested tounderstandtheColdWar andcolonialism. Whilesomeparticipants was therelationshipofColdWar upindifferentpresentationsandpanels.Onecentralconcern that werepicked anumberofcorethemesandtopicsemerged Throughout theconference, ample roomforthediscussionofcontemporarysituationinHornAfrica. including internationalrelations.Thischangealsomeantthattheworkshopgave theworkshopsoughttostrengtheninterdisciplinaryapproachesby Moreover, theopportunitiesforEthiopianscholarstodiscusstheircontributions. to extend HaderaandChristianMethfessel,was convenedbyAychegrew of thisworkshop, GlobalHistories: astudentjournal https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-8061 6 Already focusing on the Horn of Africa, this exchange betweenscholars AlreadyfocusingontheHornofAfrica,thisexchange Thematically, differentemphasesemergedthroughoutthepanels, Thematically, . https://www.uni-erfurt.de/en/the-gotha-perthes-collection/ | VI-12019 . https://www.uni-erfurt.de/index. 5 ; Foranoverview InJuly2018,a Paul Sprute & Maximilian Vogel | Africa and the Global Cold War - Review 171 | VI - 1 - 2019 | VI - 1 - 2019 Global Histories: a student journal A key focus of the conference was the rise of a new global humanitarian A key Other presentations dealt more closely with the international history public opinion between Cold War rhetorics and the humanitarian turn of the 1980s public opinion between Cold War as the Ethiopian famine, fuelled by the activism of international non-governmental as the Ethiopian famine, media coverage, organizations. Schröder highlighted the impact of Western notably a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation in raising global discussion attention. This focus was further pursued by Franziska Rantzsch’s the role of exploring of East German media depictions of the Ethiopian famine, situationist manner by the TPLF in Northern Ethiopia who moved refugees back compared their strategy to the Wagner to their war-torn homelands in Tigray. the Ethiopian of America to ‘save’ ‘mission’ of Jewish activists in the United States the Iris Schröder examined Beta Israel by airlifting them to the Jewish state. 1980s as a turning point in international responses to humanitarian crises, such assessed the opportunities of local actors in relation to external influences in time assessed the opportunities of local actors in relation to external of armed conflicts. of the devastating