SOCIALIST SOLIDARITIES AND THEIR AFTERLIVES: HISTORIES AND MEMORIES OF ANGOLAN AND MOZAMBICAN MIGRANTS IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, 1975-2015

Abstract

This dissertation examines state-sponsored education and labor migration between the Peoples’ Republics of Angola and Mozambique, and the German Democratic Republic (“GDR” or East Germany) in the late 1970s-1990s. During the Cold War, political and economic relations between the “Second World” and the “Third World” opened up migration routes to young African men and women to work and study abroad. In the process, migrants were expected to gain technical skills and expertise to develop their nascent post-colonial home states upon their return. Tracing Angola’s and Mozambique’s political transitions from decolonization, to socialism, and finally to free market democracies through the lived experiences of these migrants, this dissertation is firmly rooted in African history.

The memories and lived experiences of Angolans and Mozambicans who migrated to work and study in East Germany are central to this dissertation. It draws on 268 life history interviews with workers, students, and government officials, triangulated with archival sources, collected during two years of fieldwork in Angola, Mozambique, Portugal, South Africa, and Germany.

Outlining the lives of the transnational migrants we understand the importance of non-military global socialist ties for African history during the Cold War and beyond. Moreover, the dissertation illustrates the lasting impact of the migration experience, which indelibly shaped the Angolan and Mozambican workers’ relationship to production, consumption, education, and affective relationships. The dissertation engages with migration history, the history of nation building, labor history, and collective life history, in order to show just how intertwined the workers’ and students’ professional experiences were with their private lives as they travelled from Africa to Europe, and back again. Following in the migrants’ footsteps, it demonstrates the degree to which Angolan and Mozambican history is intertwined with that of other socialist nations like East Germany; the global socialist conjuncture is ill-understood unless we account for Angola’s and Mozambique’s multifaceted connections to the socialist world.