This collection of seven competently-written articles examines the connections between the liberation movements of southern Africa with individuals and organizations in countries of the “East” during the 1960s–1980s. The authors approach the modes and dynamics of international connections between activists of Namibian, Angolan, South African, and Mozambican liberation movements and their comrades in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, the GDR, and China through an actor-centered lens. While they recognize the intricate interplay between the liberation movements and the processes of globalization through the traditional framework of Cold War competition, they also consider the local dimensions, including “personal agendas and internal conflicts” (7). Although not an entirely novel concept, it is a breath of fresh air in the institution-centered research concerning southern African liberation struggles. However, this is a challenging approach that requires not only a comprehensive grasp of the existing literature but also meticulous research of primary sources and access to witness accounts. Partly based on the synthesis of existing scholarly and witness accounts, partly on original archival research in German, Portuguese, Russian, and Yugoslav archives, this volume is a welcoming addition to the growing literature of east-south relations during the Cold War.

Chris Saunders, Helder Adegar Fonseca, and Lena Dallywater provide broad introductory remarks of the southern African liberation movements’ transnational activism with what they collectively term as “Global Cold War ‘East,’” a somewhat confusing term which might need further elaboration. Gearing into the case studies, Eric Burton contextually broadens the geographic scope of the book, centering his investigation on Cairo, Accra, and Dar es Salaam, which he calls “hubs of decolonization,” linking African liberation movements with the “Global East” in the 1960s (25). Chris Saunders provides a coherent examination of SWAPO's “Eastern” Connections from the mid-1960s until the late 1980s, while Ulrich van der Heyden and Anja Schade deliver a highly readable history of East German solidarity with South Africa's African National Congress (ANC). Helder Adegar Fonseca offers an insightful investigation of the military training of Angolan guerrillas in socialist countries from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s, using Portuguese military intelligence and the security intelligence service's interrogation reports, applying a “prosopographical approach” (103). Natalia Telepneva's “Letters from Angola” persuasively conceptualize the connections developed by Soviet journalists and the struggle for the liberation of Angola and Mozambique. The final two chapters bring Yugoslavia to the fore. Milorad Lazic's “Comrades in Arms” extends a commanding explanation of Belgrade's military aid to the liberation movements of Angola and Mozambique, while Nedžad Kuč offers a cogent examination of southern African students’ education experiences in Yugoslavia in the 1960s.

The ambitious introductory essay touches on many important analytical and methodological questions of the study of east-south relations during the Cold War, which cannot be discussed here for the limited space provided. However, one strand of the argument which in my opinion deserves special attention is the editors’ belief that today, “when African migrants are not welcomed in Eastern Europe, and European solidarity is viewed with suspicion in some African circles,” (22) the past forms of east-south interaction and solidarity depicted by the authors “may contribute to a re-framing of transnational solidarities…” (23). In partial support of the often romanticized south-east relations, as counterpoint to the present day's increasing nationalism and populism, van der Heyden and Schade site the prominent GDR civil rights activist Friedrich Schorlemmer, who rightfully claims that the solidarity between east and south mixed political interests with “bombastic evocation” of “genuine political solidarity” (84). Be that as it may, one cannot help but notice the recurring theme of racism emerging from the essays. While not being a central topic in them, it is relevant to editors’ task of helping “re-frame” today's feeble transnational solidarities. For example, Fonseca cites UNITA's co-founder Samuel Chiwale, who acknowledged that in China Angolan trainees were “subjected to serious humiliations based on the idea of being inferior to other human beings,” a direction confirmed by the limited amount of published personal memories by other Angolans (128). Lazic paints a similar picture. The arrival of six Angolans on a four-month training program in the Yugoslav Army Infantry School in Sarajevo in 1971 exemplifies the logistical issues that occurred during their military training, as the Yugoslavs could not provide enough resources to deliver these programs permanently. For their part, the Yugoslavs found the Angolans to be “too demanding” and “too sensitive” about the way they were treated, in which they saw “racist overtones” (166). Kuč, too, hints that many South African students in Yugoslavia remained with “negative experiences and often without a diploma” (183–84).

Much in the same vein, in my research in the archives of the Bulgarian security services, I also have encountered numerous instances in which African students were subjected to racial prejudices, criticized in diplomatic exchanges for their lack of academic achievement, and, at times, even fell for various reasons under surveillance by the Bulgarian security services. None of the authors find those negative memories to have had detrimental effects on the east-south relations at the time. Saunders makes another very important observation, however, which he finds ironic. Discussing Namibia, he found that the sizeable support given by the Soviet Union and the GDR during the Cold War was now “little remembered,” as opposed to the “much more limited support given by North Korea and the PRC,” which was “often mentioned in the context of present-day relations” (76). And this is a stark reminder of the futility of those transnational networks.