Czechoslovakia in Africa, 1945–1968

In the April 1963 issue of World Politics, Curt F. Beck, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Connecticut, told readers about communist Czechoslovakia’s deep involvement with the newly decolonized continent of Africa:

The water is safe to drink in Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt, thanks to a water filter station established by Czechoslovak engineers. A shoe factory in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is being built by Czech technicians. Across the frontier, in Somalia, Czechs are building a technical institute to teach some young Somalis the techniques necessary to staff modern factories. Across the continent in Conakry, Guinea, airport inscriptions are in Czech as well as in French and English to accommodate the many Czechs arriving on the direct Prague-to-Conakry airline. In the smaller villages of Ghana special trucks are delivering Czech beer to the local inhabitants. In Mali journalists are being trained by Czechs in the establishment of their own press agency. And in Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia, there are numerous Africans among the more than 2,000 students from Africa, Asia, and Latin America enrolled at Czech state expense in institutions of higher learning. To say that Africa has assumed a role of real importance for the Czechs is an understatement.¹

What is most noteworthy about Beck’s article is that it was the first—and until this book, only—scholarly account of Czechoslovakia’s involvement with Africa published in English. The purpose of this present book is not only to update Beck’s 50-year-old article with research based on archival material from the Czechoslovak and US governments, which was unavailable at the time, but also to challenge Beck’s assertion that “One must make clear at the start that in her African policy Czechoslovakia fulfills a task that she has been given by the Soviet Union.”²

Soon after the Czechoslovak state was created from the ashes of World War I, its leaders understood that because it was a small, democratic state surrounded by larger, undemocratic, and potentially hostile neighbors (Germany, the Soviet Union, and the remnants of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire), it could not stand isolated in the international system, and instead must develop relationships outside of Central Europe in order to ensure its security. Establishing diplomatic missions abroad in support of the state’s political and economic interests was therefore viewed as vitally important. By the mid-1920s, the Czechoslovak diplomatic network had become one of the largest in the world—and was much more extensive than nearly any other state of comparable size.¹ Czechoslovak diplomatic and consular missions were established, not only in Europe and North America, but also in countries such as India, China, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

The first wave of independence in sub-Saharan Africa had begun on March 6, 1957, when Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana away from its colonial past and to independence. In the late 1950s, Nkrumah seemed to be the embodiment of everything pan-African. The inscription on a statue of him in front of the Parliament building in Accra read, “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto you. We prefer self government with danger to servitude in tranquility. Our task is not done and our safety not assured until the last vestiges of colonialism have been swept from Africa.”¹

Czechoslovakia had long been one of the world’s leading exporters of weapons to the developing world. Through the sale of arms, Czechoslovakia was able to make a profit through the disposal of obsolete weapons, stimulate its industrial economy, and form closer political relations with the states that purchased its arms. Arms exports and military training were a gateway to increased influence in Third World states because they created a technical dependence on Czechoslovakia for training, spare parts, and ammunition. Military assistance was also often a precursor to greater trade relationships with recipient states. Therefore, Czechoslovak military aid played a significant role in the overall growth of Soviet bloc influence in Africa during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

After World War II, the airplane served to dramatically shrink the world, enabling states to expand their diplomatic relations and trade with distant countries. This was especially true for a small landlocked country like Czechoslovakia. Under the motto, “Air is our sea,” Czechoslovak leaders sought to make their country a transportation center by turning Prague into an aviation hub. As one Czechoslovak diplomat put it in the early 1950s, Czechoslovakia was “a small state,” which could “feed its population only through extensive trade with other countries,” and that trade could only be conducted through the air.¹ The Czechoslovak government understood that it needed its own civil aviation capabilities so it would not have to be dependent on foreign airlines to transport its goods and diplomatic delegations. Prague was therefore sympathetic when, during the late 1950s, newly independent African states similarly sought their own national airlines.

Czechoslovakia’s attempt to build intensive relations with the African continent, which continually intensified during the years 1955–61, began to decline in 1962. The reasons that Czechoslovakia’s influence in Africa began to wane were many. An economic crisis in the ČSSR prompted officials to reexamine Czechoslovak foreign policy and especially its economic assistance expenditures to Africa. At the same time, African students returned from studying in the ČSSR disenchanted with their firsthand experience with communist society, while African governments became frustrated with the levels and types of aid they were receiving from the Soviet bloc, which was not meeting their expectations of significantly improving their economies or the living standards of their people. John F. Kennedy’s election as president of the United States also played a significant role. Under his leadership, the United States dramatically increased its interest in Africa, which provided the Soviets and Czechoslovaks greater competition for influence on the continent. Likewise, a change in leadership in Moscow from Nikita Khrushchev to Leonid Brezhnev meant that while the United States was increasing its interest in Africa, the Soviet Union’s was waning. By the middle of the decade, a series of coup d’états overthrew most of Czechoslovakia’s closest African allies and replaced them with pro-Western governments which served to further weaken the ČSSR’s influence on the continent. The final death blow for Czechoslovakia’s African policy would prove to be the Prague Spring reform movement, which toppled from power the KSČ party leaders who had been responsible for implementing Czechoslovakia’s involvement with Africa.

Gustáv Husák would remain in power in Czechoslovakia until December 1989, when the so-called Velvet Revolution forced the KSČ to surrender its power and dismantle its single-party state. In June 1990, the first free and democratic elections since 1946 took place in Czechoslovakia. Dissident playwright Václav Havel was elected president, and Alexander Dubček, the beleaguered reformer of the Prague Spring, was elected speaker of the federal parliament. On January 1, 1993, the country split into two through the so-called Velvet Divorce when the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic were simultaneously and peacefully founded, and as a result, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist.