Training ‘the Right Kind of Africans’: U.S. International Education, Western Liberalism, and The Cold War in Africa

FAIN: HB-289590-23

Manna Duah
North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC 27707-3129)

Research and writing of a monograph about U.S. Cold War strategy in Africa.

My project, titled The Right Kind of Africans, brings Africa from the historiographic periphery to its center to challenge our understanding of U.S. Cold War strategy. By looking at a full range of U.S. policies in Africa, I demonstrate that the prevailing claim that the overarching aim of the U.S. Cold War strategy was to contain the spread of communism is incomplete and even misleading. Rather, that America’s fundamental objective was to establish global support for liberal norms. By liberal norms, I mean participation in free market capitalism under terms established by the U.S. as well as adherence to the trappings of Western-style democracy. Furthermore, my project evaluates international education as a vital component of the multifaceted U.S. strategy to win the Cold War in Africa. The fundamental purpose of the programs was to locate and nurture American influence over future African leaders. My project revises my dissertation, using new research, to complete a book manuscript.