1920s–1990s: (The Cold War in Africa — From Lenin’s Comintern to Khrushchev’s Second Front: Communism’s Limited Impact Before the Late 1940s Except in South …

1920s–1990s: (The Cold War in Africa — From Lenin’s Comintern to Khrushchev’s Second Front: Communism’s Limited Impact Before the Late 1940s Except in South Africa’s Interwar Communist Party, the Soviet Union’s Active Engagement from the Mid-1950s, Moscow Supporting Ben Bella and Nasser, African Socialism as a Romanticized Indigenous Vision in Tanzania and Ethiopia, Western Powers Turning Blind Eyes to Human Rights Abuses in Exchange for Military Bases, and the Cold War Ironically Justifying the Retention of African Empires as Bulwarks Against Communism): Africa had caught the attention of revolutionary Marxists before the Cold War proper — Lenin regarded imperialism as capitalism’s highest stage and its weakest link. Through the Comintern in the 1920s the young Soviet Union encouraged non-European revolutionary movements, though attention was drawn more to Asia than Africa. Under Stalin, Soviet foreign policy became isolationist and Africa was largely ignored until his death in 1953. From the mid-1950s, however, the USSR under Khrushchev and then Brezhnev became much more active, promoting and lending material assistance to leftist movements. Ironically, the Cold War in its early stages actually justified the strengthening of African empires rather than their dissolution — Britain portrayed its empire as a bulwark against communism, and reinvigorated colonial investment was presented much like the Marshall Plan, aimed at stabilizing colonies against Soviet predation born of poverty. African leaders quickly recognized the tactical opportunities of the East-West struggle — Nkrumah combined leftist inspiration with pragmatic Commonwealth membership while cultivating Soviet relations, and Guinea survived French economic punishment through Soviet support. In North Africa, Moscow offered patronage to Ben Bella and Nasser, and Soviet support for the FLN and for Nasser’s nationalization of Suez emphasized a great gulf between Western and Eastern attitudes toward African self-determination. Some governments espoused African socialism — Nyerere’s villagization in Tanzania, Mengistu’s Marxist dictatorship in Ethiopia — while others allied firmly with the West, receiving blind eyes to human rights abuses in exchange for economic concessions and military bases, as with Mobutu’s Zaire and Kenyatta’s Kenya.