Preliminary remarks

The traditional view prevalent in the West is that on account of ostensible total subordination to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) an analysis of the foreign policy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) is of little intrinsic value or interest. It is the contention of this book that there is an East German foreign policy in Africa worthy of serious analysis, and which is not merely an appendage of Soviet activities on that continent. An examination of the GDR's involvement in Africa enables one to comprehend the development of East German foreign policy in general, in which rivalry with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) has been an important factor. Indeed, through investigating its Afrikapolitik, one is offered an insight into the advancement of the GDR as an independent state entity.

West German analysts naturally have assumed an interest in the activities of their fellow-German ‘socialist brothers’ in the Third World. Indeed, until recently, the works of these analysts were the only serious Western publications which examined East German relations with African states. Through these analyses it became apparent that the GDR's Afrikapolitik was not solely a replica in miniature of Soviet policy. Lately, a number of articles and case studies have been published by English and American scholars which have contributed to the examination of East German involvement in Africa. Thus, David Albright's assertion in 1980 that Eastern European interest in Africa was ‘sufficiently minor or ancillary to the inputs of other actors (i.e., the USSR in particular)’ to warrant exclusion from separate discussion has been increasingly challenged with regard to the GDR at least.