Introduction

The official data of GDR foreign trade turnover are arguably the least comprehensive compilation of statistics of any major industrialised state. Possible political embarrassment for the East German government that may ensue with the disclosure of certain trade figures, in part, explains the inadequacy of these official records. Also, connected with this, is the customary reluctance of the security- and legitimacy-conscious SED elite to divulge information unnecessarily about political, economic and social development in the GDR, where ‘positive’ developments are open to question. Similarly, bold pronouncements in the 1980s concerning the expanding costs of East German aid programmes to developing states and national liberation movements aimed at securing political favour in the Third World, are also of dubious statistical value.

These preliminary statements immediately indicate the political importance of East German economic involvement in Africa. It will be observed that the economic imperatives of GDR activity in Africa are never completely divorced from their political significance.

Annual editions of the statistical yearbook of the GDR (Statistisches Jahrbuch der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) furnish details of the totals of East German imports and exports from a select number of African states until 1974, after which only aggregate trade turnover figures with these states were provided. The method of statistical recording was revised by the SED authorities as a consequence, in part, of the sudden substantial GDR trade deficit of VM 608.5 million with the developing states in 1974 after a consistent trade surplus with these states from 1961 (inclusive).