International Organizations in Colonial Africa

Abstract

European imperial expansion and consolidation in Africa was, from its inception, a trans-imperial process that was increasingly codified, regulated, and legitimized in an international sphere. Similarly, initiatives that aimed to counter Western dominance and hegemony across the 20th century looked for international institutions as privileged instances for claim-making and enhanced resistance against imperial and colonial projects. All these dynamics included several and diverse actors, networks, and institutions, from distinct geographies and with varied political and social outlooks. They gave origin to the global normative and institutional order of today. From the different but competing “civilizing missions” to the crystallization of self-determination as the global political norm, the history of Africa has been a recurrent feature of the mounting drives for internationalization that marked 20th century, offering several possible avenues of research for a global history of colonialism in the continent.

Imperialism, internationalism, and education in Africa: connected histories

“…The United Nations and its specialised agencies, more particularly the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as well as a wide range of public and private actors on both sides of the Iron Curtain came to offer alternative options that could nurture the expectations of liberation movements, and then later newly independent African countries. 17 Despite this new context, where the United States (see Anton Tarradellas' article) and the Eastern bloc (see the articles of Constantin Katsakioris and Tim Kaiser et al) played a relevant role, colonial empires continued to be engaged in devising educational policies that could help achieve their reformist and developmentalist goals (see Damiano Matasci's article). 18 Cooperation between experts and administrations notably increased, especially after the creation of the Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa South of the Sahara in 1950, which would later offer a first space for inter-African collaboration.…”