Decolonisation and Regional Geopolitics South Africa and the ‘Congo Crisis’, 1960-1965 The Routledge Global 1960s and 1970s Series

Decolonisation and Regional Geopolitics argues that as much as the ?Congo crisis? (1960-1965) was a Cold War battleground, so too was it a battleground for Southern Africa?s decolonisation. This book provides a transnational history of African decolonisation, apartheid diplomacy, and Southern African nationalist movements. It answers three central questions. First, what was the nature of South African involvement in the Congo crisis? Second, what was the rationale for this involvement? Third, how did South Africans perceive the crisis?

Innovatively, the book shifts the focus on the Congo crisis away from Cold War intervention and centres it around African decolonisation and regional geopolitics.

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

1960 Map of Southern Africa

1960 Map of Congo

Section I: Setting the Scene

Centring Africa

The First Republic, 1960-1965

Section II: South African Involvement

1960-1963

1963-1964

1964-1965

Section III: South African Motives and Perceptions

Motives

Perceptions

Section IV: Conclusions

An African Battleground

Index

Lazlo Passemiers is a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State, South Africa. He specialises in transnational histories of decolonisation in twentieth-century Southern Africa.