Workshop: Theoretical and practical aspects of East European development aid to Africa during the Cold War era
📢 Workshop Invitation
Theoretical and Practical Aspects of East European Development Aid to Africa during the Cold War Era
📍 University of Warsaw
🗓 20–21 November 2025
We warmly invite you to take part in the workshop exploring the multifaceted history of East European development aid to Africa during the Cold War.
The event will bring together scholars from over a dozen institutions across Europe, Africa, and beyond to discuss political, social, and ideological dimensions of socialist internationalism, solidarity, and cooperation.
Thursday, November 20
Audytorium Maximum, aula D (Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28)
9.45 – 10.00 | Opening remarks
10.00 – 11.30 | Multilateralism, regional cooperation, and Socialist bilateralism
- Michael Tshinyalani Khorommbi (Stellenbosch University), Competing Solidarities: Eastern European Aid Rivalries and African Agency under the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1961–1988)
- Barbora Buzássyová (Slovak Academy of Sciences), Trading Solidarity: Czechoslovakia, UNESCO and Educational Aid to sub-Saharan Africa from the 1960s and beyond
- Sarah Marks (University of London, UK), Czechoslovak Health Aid to Ethiopia during the Selassie Period
11.30 – 11.50 | Coffee break
11.50 – 13.00 | Eastern European Development Aid and Local Perspective
- Sarah Howard (University of Bristol), Socialist childcare between Ethiopia and Eastern Europe from 1974
- Bharti Chhibber (University of Delhi), Policy in Practice: Eastern European Development Aid and African Women’s Empowerment
13.00-14.30 | Lunch break
14.30 – 16.00 | Ideology, political regimes and development aid
- Christopher Lash (Łazarski University, Warsaw), Polish approaches to development in Francophone West Africa from 1960-1989 in theory and in practice
- Domnica Gorovei (University of Bucharest), Exporting Development, Projecting Socialism: Romania and Upper Volta/Burkina Faso (1960-1980)
- Gabriel Zvîncă (Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca), Helping Others to Benefit Yourself. Romania’s Aid Policy in Africa during the Cold War
16.00 – 16.20 | Coffee break
16.20 – 17.30 | Eastern Europe and Ghana
- Przemysław Gasztold (War Studies University; Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw), Trade, Development and Socialism: Polish-Ghanian Economic Relations, 1957–1966
- Jan Koura (Charles University, Prague; Czech Academy of Sciences), Between Modernization and Dependency: Czechoslovak Agricultural Assistance to Nkrumah’s Ghana
Friday, 21 November
Old Library of the University of Warsaw (Stary BUW), room 308 (Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28)
10.00 – 11.30 | Socialist models of development in a comparative perspective
- Barbora Menclová (Charles University), Contesting Modernization of the West: Czechoslovakia in Cold War Angola and Mozambique
- Simon Huxtable (University of London), Schools for Solidarity: The Socialist Developmental Model and the Training of African Journalists, c.1960-1970.
- SAIBU Israel Abayomi and OLAWALE Esther Abiola (Anchor University, Lagos), Socialist Solidarity and Postcolonial Aspirations: Eastern European Aid to Nigeria during the Cold War and Competing Concepts of Development
11.30 – 11.50 | Coffee break
11.50 – 13.00 | Organization of expertise, flow of knowledge, experts
- Tjaša Konovšek (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana), Tracing solidarity and development: origins, activities and transformation of the Centre for the Study and Cooperation of Yugoslavia with Developing Countries (1966–1973)
- Filip Urbański (University of Warsaw) “Polish experts as the best export goods” – locating experts from Poland in Central and Southern Africa in the years 1960–1989
13.00 – 14.00 | Lunch
14.00 – 14.30 | Conclusions
🔗 Organized by: Wydział Historii UW, Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Spraw Międzynarodowych UW, Ośrodek Kultury Francuskiej i Studiów Frankofońskich UW