Whose Atlantic? – Historiographies of South Africa, Namibia, OPSAAAL, and Central America

Abstract

Abstract:During the 1970s and 1980s, southern African liberation movements lent rhetorical and sometimes material support to Central American guerilla groups. Such action represented both change and continuity within the previous decade’s non-aligned solidarities. This paper explores these connections and attempts to explain their significance on both sides of the ocean. It draws upon research in southern African and American archives in order to re-examine both spaces’ historiographies. Finally, it asks what these solidarities tell us about the nature of Cold War trans-oceanic linkages, fits them into debates over the nature of the discursive Atlantic, and ponders whether previous scholarship has effectively explored their significance.