p The relations between the USSR and the majority of countries in Tropical Africa began to develop actively in the 1960s after the latter had won political independence. The Soviet Government welcomed the rise of every newly free state in Tropical Africa. It extended its recognition to it and established diplomatic relations when there were favourable conditions for doing this.

p Most of the developing countries of Tropical Africa reacted favourably to the Soviet initiative. Some established diplomatic relations with the USSR immediately upon proclaiming independence: Nigeria, Somalia, the Congo (Leopoldville), the Central African Republic and Togo in 1960; Uganda and Burundi in 1962; Kenya in 1963; Zambia in 1964; Gambia in 1965. Others did so within two to four years upon winning independence: Dahomey, Senegal and Sierra Leone in 1962; Cameroon and Chad in 1964. Only a small group of countries (Gabon, Niger, the Malagasy Republic, the Upper Volta and the Ivory Coast), due to certain factors artificially created by their former mother countries, and to the policy of the domestic reactionary and conservative forces did not hasten to establish any contacts with the USSR. In some countries the atmosphere of caution and sometimes even hostility towards the Soviet Union was created by left extremists whose activity on the African continent was deliberately misrepresented by the bourgeois press which identified it with the policy of the socialist countries. The newly free African countries needed time to realise that in the person of the USSR they were acquiring a true friend and that their basic interests coincided. Life itself spurred their governments to modify their foreign policy. Slowly but surely they came to recognise the 107 outstanding role of the socialist community in contemporary international relations. The Upper Volta and the Ivory Coast established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1967,  [107•1  Mauritius and Equatorial Guinea in 1968, Niger and the Malagasy Republic (renamed Democratic Republic of Madagascar in 1975) in 1972, Gabon and Guinea-Bissau in 1973, Mozambique in 1975, Angola, the Republic of Cape Verde, the Comoro Islands and the Seychelles in 1976, and Jibuti in 1977. By 1979 only two states in Tropical Africa, the Ivory Coast and Malawi, had no diplomatic relations with the USSR.

p The establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR created favourable conditions for the independent development of the African countries and made them less dependent, on the imperialist powers. The USSR did its utmost to heighten the role of the newly free African countries in the modern world.

p The Soviet Union and the countries of Tropical Africa approach many issues from similar positions. For example, the USSR backed the demand of the African peoples that an end should be put to atomic tests in the Sahara. On their part countries of Tropical Africa often formed a united front with the USSR in the struggle for general and complete disarmament. In compliance with a proposal of the Soviet delegation, the 16th Session of the UN General Assembly included Ethiopia and Nigeria in the Disarmament Committee (the Committee of 18). On 24 November 1961 the General Assembly adopted a resolution sponsored by Ghana proclaiming Africa a nuclear-free zone. The USSR delegation supported this resolution. An overwhelming majority of the countries of Tropical Africa cast their votes for another important document—the Declaration on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear Weapons.

p Almost all countries of Tropical Africa signed the Moscow Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, the Treaty on the NonProliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof, and the Treaty on the 108 Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction.

p A very important manifestation of the full coincidence of the interests of the Soviet Union and the countries of Tropical Africa is the struggle for the elimination of the remaining seats of the colonial system and racialism. Representatives of the USSR and countries of Tropical Africa jointly work in this direction in the Special UN Committee for Decolonisation (the Committee of 24), on the Security Council (problems relating to the liberation of Namibia and South Africa), and at the UN General Assembly sessions.

p In November 1975 the Soviet Union extended recognition to the People’s Republic of Angola. It was one of the first countries to do so. And when the hostile forces in Angola, FNLA and UNITA, received support from US imperialists and South African racialists who sent their mercenaries to Angola to fight against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the Soviet Union and Cuba resolutely came out against foreign interference in the internal affairs of the newly born independent African state. The stand of the Soviet Union and Cuba towards the People’s Republic of Angola was acclaimed throughout Tropical Africa. World public opinion welcomed it as yet another manifestation of the socialist countries’ invariable support for the struggle of the African peoples to liberate the continent from colonialism and racialism. The winning of independence by Angola was a step towards the achievement of this great goal.

p The Soviet Union’s consistent efforts to stop the aggression of the US imperialists in Indochina and of Israel in the Middle East won prompt and profound understanding in Tropical Africa. The public in independent African states more than once expressed its anti-imperialist solidarity with the Soviet Union’s stand on these issues 

p The close positions of the USSR and the countries of Tropical Africa on basic international issues pave the way for the further development of Soviet-African relations, cooperation and contacts. In the 1960s and the early 1970s numerous personal contacts were established between Soviet statesmen and their counterparts in the countries of Tropical Africa. Of special importance are top-level meetings which 109 stimulate and broaden bilateral cooperation. The USSR was visited by the Prime Minister of Senegal and by the Vice President of Dahomey (1962), by the Prime Minister of Uganda (1905), by the President of Cameroon (1967), by the Vice President and Prime Minister of Sierra Leone (1971), by the Prime Minister of Mauritius (1973), by the Head of State and the Federal Military Government of Nigeria (1974), by the President of Zambia (1974), by the President of Gambia (1975), by the Chief Commissar of the Council of State Commissars (Head of Government) of Guinea-Bissau (1975), by the Chairman; of the Provisional Military Administrative Council of Socialist Ethiopia (1977).

p The Soviet Union was host to parliamentary delegations from Zaire, Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Benin, Liberia, Cameroon, Ruanda, Senegal, and the Upper Volta, and also to numerous government delegations and good-will missions from countries of Tropical Africa headed by prominent statesmen. For instance, the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of the Congo visited the Soviet Union in 1969, the Foreign Minister of Gambia in 1971, the Foreign Minister of the Malagasy Republic in 1972, the Foreign Minister of Benin in 1975 and the Foreign Minister of Nigeria in 1977.

p The visit to the USSR of Didier Ratsiraka, President of the Malagasy Republic, was another contribution to the development of the relations between the two countries.

p In the past decade Soviet parliamentary and government delegations also visited many countries of Tropical Africa. USSR Supreme Soviet delegations, for instance, visited Sierra Leone in 1965 and 1977, Cameroon and Ruanda in 1971, Senegal and Zaire in 1972, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania in 1977.

p Contacts between party and public organisations of the USSR and countries of Tropical Africa are expanding and becoming more regular. The CPSU maintains traditionally close and friendly relations with Marxist and revolutionarydemocratic parties in that part of Africa. Delegations of these parties were present at the 24th and 25th CPSU congresses and at the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution. Initiative in the establishment of contacts with the CPSU is being also displayed by a number of ruling parties in the region. Political leaders in the countries of Tropical Africa are interested in 110 the experience of party development in the Soviet Union and in the way the CPSU resolves basic socio-economic and national problems.

p In March 1974 a delegation from the CPSU Central Committee was invited to attend the 4th Congress of the AllPeople’s Congress (APC), the ruling party in Sierra Leone. Expressing sincere satisfaction over the presence at the Congress of the Soviet delegation, General Secretary of the All-People’s Congress Party Christian Kamara-Taylor said: "We all believe that direct contacts and personal acquaintance will help promote closer understanding and strengthen friendly ties between the CPSU and the APC, between the peoples of the Soviet Union and Sierra Leone.”  [110•2 

p The 1970s were marked by the transition of a number of African states to the path of socialist orientation. Naturally, this brings them closer to the USSR and other countries of the socialist community, and makes the leaders of these African countries more interested in learning how the CPSU guides the Soviet state. One of the first foreign policy acts of the Party of the People’s Revolution of Benin (PPRB) was establishment of friendly relations with the CPSU. In January 1977 the first PPRB delegation visited Moscow. In its turn a CPSU delegation visited Benin the same year and acquainted itself with party development in that country.

p An important stage in the development of the traditionally friendly Soviet-Ethiopian relations was the working visit to the Soviet Union of the Chairman of the Provisional Military Administrative Council and the Council of Ministers of Socialist Ethiopia Lieutenant-Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1978, which further stimulated the cooperation between the two countries.

p Mutual understanding and trust are strengthened by the broad contacts between trade union, women’s, young people’s and religious organisations in the USSR and similar organisations in the countries of Tropical Africa. Soviet public organisations provide material support for friendly organisations in that part of the world.

p The Soviet Association of Friendship with the Peoples of Africa, founded in 1959, plays a major role in promoting contacts between the peoples of the USSR and Tropical Africa. Its main objective is to spread information about 111 the Soviet Union on the African continent and about Africa in the USSR.

p Foreign trade was predominant in the initial stage of the Soviet Union’s economic relations with the countries of Tropical Africa. Soviet trade deals with them date back to the colonial period. Yet the Soviet Union’s share in their foreign trade is not too great. Most typically, the majority of the newly free countries are oriented in their foreign trade on the former home countries and other capitalist states. The development of Soviet-African trade is hampered by objective and subjective factors, including unfavourable customs tariffs for Soviet exports to individual countries connected with the Common Market, and the absence of a reciprocal most-favoured-nation clause in some of the trade agreements. In order to acquaint the African consumers with its commodities and to expand trade, the Soviet Union participates in traditional international fairs. Since 1969, for instance, it has been regularly participating in the International Fair in Kinshasa (Zaire) and in the Trade and Industrial Fair in Ndola (Zambia). Soviet foreign trade associations periodically organise expo-fairs in African countries. All this helps to expand Soviet-African trade contacts which by no means have attained the highest level of development.

p Interest in the Soviet Union is steadily rising in the African countries. Their public wants to be better informed about the foreign policy of the CPSU and Soviet Government, about the Soviet Union’s progress in economic, scientific, technological, cultural and national development. Africans, particularly students, display a growing desire to study Marxist philosophy. This accounts for the steadily increasing demand for Soviet political, scientific, technical literature and fiction in the countries of Tropical Africa. Very popular are photo exhibitions illustrating all aspects of life in the Soviet Union, lectures by visiting Soviet scientists and public figures and concerts by Soviet performers. More and more Africans study Russian.

p The African press, which publishes numerous articles about life in the Soviet Union, radio stations and friendship societies in some countries of Tropical Africa (Nigeria, People’s Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Mauritius and Upper Volta) help spread truthful information about the Soviet Union.

p The development of multifarious cooperation between the Soviet Union arid the countries of Tropical Africa,’which has been in progress for not more than ten or hfteen years, encounters certain^difnculties.Jfhe^Western* powers, which have a ramiiied propaganda network in the countries of Tropical Africa, work hard to prevent these countries from establishing closer, relations with the USSR and other socialist countries. They keep on using anti-communism as their main ideological and political weapon. And it is anti-communism that welds imperialist ideology with the ideology of pro-Western groups in some countries of Tropical Africa.

p Some political leaders in those countries emphasise the “exclusiveness” of African societies. They say that African states are advancing along a “special”, “third” path, and thus seek to turn ideological differences into an insurmountable obstacle to cooperation with the USSR. Such trends, naturally, are promptly taken up by the neocolonialists who want to isolate the developing countries from the socialist states.

p The political reality of the contemporary world and the practical relations with the USSR, however, expose the slanderous fabrications of the imperialist and Maoist propaganda about the USSR and its policy, and remove many barriers inhibiting Soviet-African cooperation. Mutual understanding between the peoples of the USSR and the countries of Tropical Africa is steadily building up. This was clearly seen during the celebrations of the centenary of Lenin’s birth and the 60th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. National committees were set up in many countries of Tropical Africa for commemorating these dates.

p On the occasion of the centenary of Lenin’s birth some countries, such as Cameroon, Mauritius, Senegal, Togo and the Central African Republic, issued postage stamps with a portrait of the founder of the CPSU and the Soviet state. To mark this date Senegal issued a special envelope with a picture of Lenin making his historic speech at the Second Congress of Soviets. A short biography of Lenin was published in the Ewe language in Togo. A library named after Lenin which subsequently became the cultural centre of the Mauritius-USSR Friendship Society was opened in Port Louis, capital of Mauritius, and a monument to 113 Lenin was also unveiled there. The centenary was marked by numerous public meetings, iilm shows and photo exhibitions in many countries of Tropical Africa.

p The 60th anniversary of the October Revolution was observed just as widely in those countries. National committees to mark this great date in the history of mankind were set up in 13 countries of Tropical Africa. Once again a number of countries, including the Upper Volta and the Seychelles, issued postage stamps devoted to the Great October Socialist Revolution. Throughout the anniversary year, days of the Soviet Union and its constituent republics were organised in many countries in that part of Africa. Photo exhibitions, weeks of Soviet films, Soviet book exhibitions, lectures on the achievements of the USSR in communist construction, and on the new Soviet Constitution attracted numerous visitors. The report "The Great October Revolution and Mankind’s Progress" delivered by Leonid Brezhnev evoked a great response in the countries of Tropical Africa. Delegations from many countries took part in the International Meeting of representatives of foreign societies of friendship with the USSR and the Soviet public, held in Moscow in September 1977 to mark the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution.

p As they continue to struggle to achieve real independence, to surmount their economic backwardness and promote social progress, the peoples of Tropical Africa rely on the consistent and effective support of the Soviet Union and the socialist community as a whole. They regard the Soviet Union as their reliable friend which helps them strengthen their political and economic independence.

The Soviet Union’s principled stand towards the countries of Tropical Africa manifested itself most forcefully in the 1960s during the events in the Congo and the civil war in Nigeria.