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00:02History is not an exact science. It is never set in stone.
00:16As time passes, knowledge of the past is refined and evolves.
00:29But, by definition, received ideas have thick skins and are hard to shift.
00:42I have a dream that all men have created each other.
00:49To understand the realities of the world, you sometimes have to shake them up and decipher the facts by looking
00:56at them another way.
01:16In our collective consciousness, the Cold War is remembered as a global conflict between the USSR and the USA, centered
01:25in Europe and Asia. And yet…
01:39On April the 18th, 1955, Bandung in Indonesia became the focal point of the world.
01:48Thirty heads of state from Africa and Asia gather there for an exceptional event.
01:56This is the first intercontinental conference of colored peoples, so-called colored people, in the history of mankind.
02:12In Bandung, the Third World burst onto the international scene.
02:17The people of India, China and Vietnam were determined to get their voices heard,
02:23and were encouraging subjugated nations to shake off their oppressors.
02:28Following the Second World War, European powers were forced to relinquish their colonies.
02:33After Asia, it was Africa's turn. Its new states had to find their place in an international order, shaped by
02:41the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets.
03:10March 1957. On the streets of the United States.
03:14In the United States of Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast, the people were ecstatic.
03:18The former British colony had just proclaimed its independence, adopting the new name of Ghana.
03:24Ghana, we now have freedom.
03:28Ghana, land of freedom.
03:32Toils of the brave, and this world of the Alevos.
03:36Toils of the brave, which have brought results.
03:41It's not every day that a new name is written on the map.
03:45Ghana, the first African colony to achieve full independence.
03:49The architect of independence was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who had been an anti-colonial activist since his youth, and had
03:58trained as an economist.
03:59Well, this is an opportunity for the African to demonstrate to the world that the African, given the chance, can
04:10manage his own affairs.
04:12And with the experience we have had, I'm quite sure that we shall be able to live up to this
04:18opportunity.
04:21The new president's dream was to lift his country out of its underdevelopment through modernization.
04:31But his optimism collided with the harsh reality.
04:35For over a century, 200 million Africans lived under the domination of colonial powers.
04:41Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal exploited Africa's people and resources, controlled its territories, and destroyed its local cultures
04:52to satisfy their own needs.
05:00In the 1950s, Africa was in turmoil.
05:06Much still needed to be done.
05:08This required resources that Ghana simply didn't have.
05:14And neither did the countries that took part in the Bandung Conference, whose promises of cooperation were never honored.
05:32The economic and technological resources needed for modernization could be found in the United States and the Soviet Union.
05:42Since 1945, the two superpowers were dividing up the world and establishing an impassable border in the middle of Europe.
05:57The Americans promised freedom and abundance.
06:01The Soviets, social justice and a five-year plan.
06:08The two opposing ideologies competed in every sector.
06:12The economy, sports, culture, and even nuclear power.
06:22The goal?
06:24Prove the superiority of their system and export it to the rest of the world.
06:31During this conflict, known as the Cold War, it seemed almost impossible not to choose sides.
06:43A former student in the United States, the Ghanaian president first turned to America.
06:49He sought support for a major dam project on Lake Volta, which would enable his country to develop its electricity
06:56grid.
07:02For President Eisenhower, the emerging African states represented new markets, reservoirs of raw materials and strategically valuable regions.
07:15They would also provide the United States with additional allies and extra votes in international organizations.
07:22A windfall that they did not want to lose to Moscow.
07:28The dam project would be signed.
07:34In the Kremlin, Communist Party First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev was also closely following the awakening of the peoples of Africa.
07:44This is a remarkable phenomenon of our time, he proclaimed.
07:48Communists are revolutionaries, and it would be unfortunate if they did not take advantage of these new opportunities.
07:58To realize his ambitions, he ordered the creation of new departments responsible for international relations.
08:05The special services, the KGB and the GRU, received special briefings on the situation in Africa.
08:17The scramble for the continent was on.
08:21But this time, Africans were attempting to set their own rules.
08:27To prevent further colonization, Mkrumah decided to play the competition.
08:34Back from Washington, he contacted Moscow and asked for help with a second project.
08:40The construction of a hydroelectric power station.
08:49What's more, Mkrumah was seduced by the Soviet growth model based on centralism, collectivization and mass mobilization.
09:01Indifferent to the sensitivities of his American partners, the Ghanaian president declared,
09:07Capitalism is too complicated a system for a newly independent nation.
09:12That's why we need a socialist society.
09:23A rapprochement that made Uncle Sam cringe.
09:28But withdrawing aid from Ghana would be tantamount to throwing the country into the arms of the Kremlin.
09:34That was out of the question.
09:40Mkrumah entered the Cold War without restricting himself to a single side.
09:49To multiply his alliances, the Ghanaian head of state also turned to the Chinese premier, Zhou Enlai,
09:55and cultivated relations with his former British colonists.
10:01His method was emulated on the African continent.
10:06Notably in the Congo, a former Belgian colony, where King Baudouin announced independence.
10:37The right man for the job was Patrice Lumumba.
10:41After years of struggle, he was in the United States.
10:42and a spell in prison, the 35-year-old former trade unionist became the prime minister of a free Congo.
10:51This independence of the Congo does not mean to chase the Congo or to separate us from the Belgique.
10:57On the other hand, we want to build a sovereign government where the Congolese and the BNJ can work with
11:03the service of the Congolese nation.
11:10Full of idealism, his appeal sounded like wishful thinking.
11:18In reality, nothing was in place for a successful transition.
11:23And some of the Belgian colonialists were not ready to relinquish their power.
11:32Five days after Lumumba's announcement, a mutiny by black soldiers against white officers erupted.
11:40It turned into a general strike and led to violent demonstrations.
11:45Many whites fled the country.
12:02Lumumba tried to control the situation by ridding the army of its Belgian officers.
12:08But he was faced with another even more serious conflict.
12:12The secessionist struggle in the southern province of Katanga.
12:21Its governor, Moise Chumbe, called in mercenaries to gain independence for his province.
12:32A crisis that the Americans and Soviets were following closely.
12:37After all, Katanga boasted large reserves of uranium essential for the nuclear programs being pursued by both superpowers.
12:47Thanks to an agreement with the Belgian colonists, the Americans had hitherto enjoyed the right to mine it.
12:54Uranium from Katanga was even used to make the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
13:01But now that the Congo had become independent, there was nothing to stop Lumumba doing business with Moscow, even if
13:08the Prime Minister denied any collusion with the Kremlin.
13:10Are you a communist, Mr. Lumumba?
13:14I always have to laugh when I ask this question.
13:18I am simply a nationalist, a leader, a nationalist who fights for an ideal.
13:24I am not a communist at all and I will never become a communist at all.
13:30But in the context of the Cold War, these words did little to ease the fears of the Western powers.
13:37Encouraged by its American ally, Brussels sent 10,000 troops to the Congo.
13:44Officially, they came to protect the white population against violence.
13:49In reality, some Belgians lent a hand to the Katanga secessionists.
13:57A month later, Belgium signed an agreement with the province's governor, de facto recognising its independence.
14:08Responding to the infringement of his country's sovereignty, Lumumba appealed to the UN for military aid against Belgian aggression.
14:19The UN sent peacekeepers to restore order, but not to stop the Belgians.
14:27Backed into a corner, the Congolese Prime Minister decided to go all out and requested Soviet support.
14:36The Kremlin saw an opportunity to win a new African ally.
14:42As a sign of support, a Soviet embassy opened in Leopoldville.
14:47The USSR strongly condemned the Belgian interference, accusing Brussels of neo-colonialism.
14:54Lumumba became a symbol of the struggle against American imperialism.
14:58Lumumba became a symbol of the European Union.
15:02Número 25, cidade de Irkutí, Lomumbo, Osnámi.
15:22Confronted with this new development, Washington wondered what course to take.
15:29Lomumbo's rapprochement with Moscow was worrying, and Secret Service reports were alarming.
15:36Larry Devlin, CIA station chief in Leopoldville, wrote,
15:41We believe he will become a strongman, eliminate moderate opposition,
15:45and establish a regime under the influence of, if not totally controlled by, the commies.
15:52The response was swift.
15:54CIA chief Alan Dulles made a radical decision.
16:00Lomumbo's removal is our most important objective.
16:18To achieve its ends, the USA recruited a high-ranking member of the Congolese army
16:23and a former Lomumbo protégé.
16:26His name was Joseph Mobutu, and he was fiercely opposed to communism
16:31and consumed by the desire to rule the Congo.
16:36Backed by Uncle Sam's military and financial power, Mobutu did the dirty work.
16:44He deposed Lumumbo, placed him under house arrest, and cleaned up the country.
17:15Hiding in a small car,
17:17Lumumbo managed to escape from his residence.
17:21A week later, he was caught by Mobutu's men, and handed over to the Katanga rebels.
17:30The Congolese prime minister was executed on January the 17th, 1961.
17:36His body was dissolved in acid to avoid any commemoration.
17:41For the Americans, Mobutu was the perfect candidate to replace him.
17:50It is in our interest to support Colonel Mobutu as a counter power, Larry Devlin wrote to the CIA.
17:56He is waiting for our instructions now and in the coming days.
18:05Washington had won a round in the Congo.
18:08The Americans had put a pro-Western pawn in office and ousted the Soviets.
18:17Freshly elected to the White House, President Kennedy personally congratulated Mobutu for his help.
18:24General, without you, this whole thing would have failed, and the communists would have taken power.
18:33CIA archives would later reveal that nearly $20 million had been transferred to Mobutu, without any accounting records.
18:48A few years later, they would have been transferred to Mobutu, without any accounting records.
18:49Lumumba's death sparked a worldwide wave of indignation.
19:00At the United Nations, African American activists burst into a Security Council meeting
19:05and accused the United States of assassinating the Congolese prime minister.
19:14Demonstrations against U.S. imperialism multiplied, as did hostile declarations by African leaders.
19:23In Ghana, Nkrumah's fierce speeches even jeopardized funding for his dam.
19:29The production of fissionable material for use in weapons.
19:33The United States wasn't managing to win people over on the African continent.
19:41All the more so, as it continued to support South Africa and its apartheid regime.
19:47A system of strict racial segregation created by the white minority,
19:53who were convinced that they had been chosen by God to rule over black people.
20:04Each nation has its place in the plan of God, as it is written in the Bible.
20:09If you believe in Jesus Christ, you have met your problems.
20:13And you have solved your problems.
20:14And you will solve the half of your problems.
20:16Then you will obey and you will learn and will learn to love him.
20:29Segregation was enforced through violent repression.
20:41The political party, the African National Congress, had been banned since 1960.
20:46Its leaders forced into exile in neighboring countries,
20:49and others sentenced to long prison terms.
20:52The most famous among them was Nelson Mandela.
21:06Despite international outrage, America had no intention of abandoning its precious ally.
21:13South Africa was its anti-communist gendarme in the region.
21:18It also had reserves of uranium, diamond mines, and precious metals such as gold.
21:30The ANC, which continued its action from abroad, had no choice but to turn to the Soviet Union for help.
21:41An opportunity for the Kremlin to take a leading role.
21:46Moscow offered to train ANC leaders and fully exploited this support,
21:51while accusing America of racism.
21:58In the early 1960s, the U.S.S.S.R. enjoyed an excellent reputation on the African continent.
22:06The Soviet Union's top salesman of communist doctrine gets the VIP treatment in Ghana,
22:11as he arrives with a briefcase full of promises.
22:17African and Soviet dignitaries met regularly, and new projects were approved.
22:29African countries benefited from the presence of the 40,000 engineers,
22:34political and military advisers sent by the Kremlin.
22:45And that's not all.
22:47In Moscow, the People's Friendship University, aptly renamed Patris Lumumba University,
22:53offered generous scholarships to African students.
23:02in Moscow, the U.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.
23:05in the name of Patris Lumumba University.
23:08Moscow, the U.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.
23:24The program included language courses,
23:33a visit to Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square,
23:40and a taste of the Russian winter.
23:47Russian summer, Russian three-year-old, Russian song,
23:52Russian summer, Russian three-year-old, Russian song.
23:53This will remain for the whole life.
23:58The seduction operation was well underway.
24:03Magnanimous, Khrushchev declared to the students,
24:07We won't be saddened if you don't become communists,
24:10yet you will always remain honest if you devote your lives
24:13to the faithful service of your people,
24:16and not to the money bag, the gold coin.
24:18and not to the nation.
24:30Faced with the Soviet onslaught,
24:32the Kennedy administration had to react.
24:36The African continent could not be left to the U.S.S.S.R.
24:42We can welcome diversity the Communists cannot,
24:46For we offer a world of choice, and they offer a world of coercion.
24:56The centerpiece at the heart of the new American soft power was the Peace Corps,
25:02young volunteers on humanitarian missions to teach English, mechanics, and medicine.
25:14I'm going to join the Peace Corps, hard-working Peace Corps.
25:20Going to be a Valentino across the blue.
25:24I'm going to join the Peace Corps, every other Peace Corps.
25:30Going to teach the foreign gals a thing or two.
25:34Our Peace Corps, I want to emphasize, is not designed as a weapon of propaganda.
25:40It's not designed as a tool in the Cold War.
25:44It is a genuine effort by the people of the United States to play their part in working for peace.
25:52They will live at the same level as the citizens of the country which they're sent to,
25:57doing the same work, eating the same food, speaking the same language.
26:11The need to restore the image of the United States was all the more urgent
26:15after the outbreak of the Vietnam War,
26:17which had slowed the scramble for Africa and revived the specter of American colonialism.
26:29Embroiled in the conflict in Asia, America gave up on new adventures in the tropics.
26:44All the more so because in Africa, everything had gone wrong.
26:52Just a decade after the first wave of independence,
26:55the people of Africa were disillusioned with their leaders,
26:58who had failed to deliver on the promises of social justice and growth.
27:04Some, like Nkrumah, even took an authoritarian turn,
27:08establishing a single party and imposing a personality cult.
27:16The Ghanaian leader, a leading figure of decolonisation,
27:20was ousted in a coup d'etat in 1966.
27:25His statue removed.
27:29And his writings burned.
27:33The cost of Nkrumahism became too great for the people to bear.
27:38Vast prestige projects set the country's dwindling wealth.
27:42The rulers lived in opulence,
27:44while the average Ghanaian worker would be lucky to earn $40 a month.
27:57In the late 1960s,
27:59a new generation of African nationalist leaders emerged.
28:08One of these was Somali general Mohamed Siad Bari.
28:13In 1969, he instigated a putsch
28:16against the pro-Western government in Mogadishu.
28:22In the aftermath, he declared,
28:24To guarantee the interests of the Somali people,
28:28we declare that Somalia will henceforth be a socialist state.
28:35To back up his statements,
28:37the general circulated placards and symbols
28:39that left no doubt about his convictions.
28:52It was an invitation that the Kremlin leadership
28:55and its new strongman Leonid Brezhnev
28:58couldn't ignore.
29:02From a geostrategic point of view,
29:04Somalia was a very valuable country.
29:07Its ports controlled the major maritime trade routes
29:09between the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean.
29:14In 1974, a cooperation agreement was signed.
29:19Soviet engineers arrived to build a missile base
29:22and a naval center near the Red Sea.
29:28The Somali Democratic Republic thus became
29:31the most substantial Soviet investment in Africa.
29:43That same year, Europe's last colonial power, Portugal,
29:47freed itself from 40 years of dictatorship
29:50with the Carnation Revolution.
29:54The new democratic government decided to withdraw from Angola,
29:58which it had occupied since the 16th century.
30:03The first colony on the African continent
30:05and a former hub of the slave trade
30:08would be one of the last to regain its independence.
30:13The date was set a year and a half later
30:16for November the 11th, 1975.
30:20In accordance with the agreement signed with the Portuguese,
30:23the MPLA, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola,
30:27was to take power.
30:35The party was led by the socialist Agosto Neto.
30:39A medical student in the Portuguese capital,
30:42he was trusted by the former colonists,
30:44but his position as leader was fragile.
31:05The foreign forces were represented by two other factions vying for power.
31:12In the north, the FNLA,
31:14the National Liberation Front for Angola,
31:18and in the south, Jonas Savimbi's UNITA.
31:23Both parties were backed by the United States
31:25and Mobutu's Congo, now known as Zaire.
31:29Their aim, to prevent the establishment
31:32of a socialist government in Angola.
31:39Civil war broke out between the three factions.
31:45Whoever took control of the capital, Luanda,
31:48on November the 11th, 1975,
31:50the day independence was to be announced,
31:52would win power.
31:58For the two rival blocs,
32:00a new opportunity to gain ground in Africa opened up.
32:06The only obstacle to their expansionist ambitions was the policy of detente
32:11that Moscow and Washington had been pursuing over the past ten years.
32:17Given this, actively intervening in Angola
32:20would be seen as a provocation by both sides.
32:28After a brief period of hesitation,
32:30Moscow decided to become involved in the conflict.
32:35To avoid jeopardizing the rapprochement,
32:37sending troops was out of the question.
32:40Instead, the Kremlin opted for logistical and materials support.
32:47Soviet weapons enabled Agosto Neto's troops
32:50to take Luanda in June 1975.
32:58The White House was in panic.
33:00The Soviet Union has sent close to $200 million
33:04worth of military equipment to Angola.
33:09Soviet actions in Angola, if continued,
33:13are bound to affect the general relationship
33:16with the United States.
33:21In response, Henry Kissinger, advisor to the US president,
33:25and Bill Colby, head of the CIA,
33:28met in the Oval Office.
33:29The MPLA had to be stopped at all costs.
33:36The CIA set up a secret operation
33:39to send $50 million worth of equipment
33:42to Neto's opponents.
33:49The deliveries were routed through Mobutu Zaire,
33:52an American ally.
33:56He wasn't the only supporter on the continent
33:58that the USA rallied around.
34:03There was also South Africa.
34:07Pretoria sent 3,000 soldiers to Angola.
34:16And so began one of the bloodiest confrontations
34:19of the Cold War.
34:23Armed with American equipment,
34:25rebel troops advanced from the north and south
34:28towards the capital.
34:34The Polish journalist, Ryszard Kapuczynski,
34:37described the tension in Luanda
34:39as the troops approached.
34:46Who was going to get there first?
34:49The FNLA is a brutal army.
34:51A few days ago, they took the town of Lukala.
34:57Not a single survivor was left.
34:59Women's heads were scattered along the road.
35:02Bodies with hearts and livers cut out.
35:10On November the 2nd, a week before the date of independence,
35:14the rebel armies were only 30 kilometers from Luanda.
35:21Neto's MPLA soldiers were surrounded.
35:27He sent an urgent telegram to Moscow, asking for help.
35:35When the Kremlin refused,
35:37Neto turned to another communist ally.
35:41Fidel Castro in Cuba.
35:47With Moscow's tacit agreement,
35:49Castro launched Operation Carlota two days later.
35:52The last-ditch rescue of a socialist Angola.
36:00Three Cuban army planes made 70 round flights
36:03between the island and Luanda,
36:05a total of 18,000 kilometers each way,
36:09transporting almost 4,000 volunteer soldiers and weapons.
36:15In Angola, thousands of kilometers from their homes,
36:18the Soviets and Americans were waging a hot war
36:22through proxy armies.
36:47The fighting ended in a resounding Cuban victory,
36:51allowing Agosto Neto's MPLA to take power.
36:57On November 11, 1975, Neto proclaimed the country's independence and became its president.
37:08Although Moscow officially distanced itself from the conflict, no one was fooled.
37:13The USSR had won, a triumph that was difficult for its American rival to accept.
37:20We don't think the Russians are going to have any permanent foothold in Africa, in Angola, or anywhere else.
37:26The whole record of the African countries is that while they may smile for once in a while on Russian
37:31help,
37:32they get rid of them as soon as they're able to.
37:41Moscow savored its triumph.
37:43The tide is finally turning in our direction, claimed a Kremlin official.
37:51The Americans, on the other hand, were humiliated by the outcome of the war.
37:57They were also widely criticized for their support of the South African regime.
38:01Some elites were convinced that their country was losing the battle for Africa.
38:15Galvanized by their success, the Soviets continued their offensive on the African continent.
38:22Their new target, Ethiopia, in East Africa.
38:28Ethiopia was never colonized.
38:30It was one of the oldest monarchies in the world.
38:32It's King, Haile Selassie, had been reigning like a despot for decades, ruling over a people living in poverty,
38:40with only 5% of the population able to read and write.
38:48In 1974, a revolution broke out.
38:52A movement called the Derg overthrew and executed the king.
38:58At the head of the movement was Mengistu Haile Marian, a military officer from a working-class background.
39:06He announced his intention to transform the country according to the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
39:19Addis Ababa University, funded by the USA since the 1950s, became the focal point of the revolution.
39:33Mengistu also launched a campaign against his opponents during a public speech, the new Ethiopian leader broke a bottle of
39:41red liquid to show that he intended to spill the blood of counter-revolutionaries.
39:57A wave of terror swept through the country.
40:02Over the next two years, 500,000 men, women and children were rounded up and executed.
40:10The atrocities did not prevent Moscow from supporting the country's socialist transformation.
40:20Ethiopia nationalized its enterprises and collectivized its land, all under the benevolent eye of its Soviet big brother.
40:31Though the Kremlin turned a blind eye to the Red Terror,
40:34it would have to take a position in the conflict between Ethiopia and the Somalia of Siadbari, another of its
40:41African protégés.
40:44On July the 23rd, 1977, Somali troops invaded their Ethiopian neighbor.
40:53The cause of this attack? The Ogaden Desert.
40:58Located in Ethiopia, it was claimed by Somalia.
41:05The Kremlin had to weigh up the pros and cons in choosing sides.
41:11There was Somalia on the one hand, with its favorable geo-strategic location.
41:19Siadbari was aware of this asset and made sure he wasn't confined to a relationship with the USSR.
41:25He also cultivated ties with China, Saudi Arabia and even the United States.
41:33On the other hand, there was Ethiopia, which was more ideologically compliant.
41:40Mengistu went so far as to erect a statue of Lenin in the center of Addis Ababa, the largest outside
41:46of Europe.
41:48The Ethiopian leader also sparked enthusiasm among some European communist leaders,
41:54notably the East German Erich Honecker.
42:11But it wasn't all about ideology.
42:14Ethiopia would be useful in alleviating some of the shortcomings of the East German economy.
42:20In particular, a shortage of coffee, which made the GDR leaders fear a popular revolt.
42:30Mengistu agreed to exchange precious coffee beans for East German weapons.
42:36Honecker was convinced.
42:44Fidel Castro also wanted to make his position clear.
42:49After a meeting with Somalia's Siadbari and Ethiopia's Mengistu, Castro concluded,
42:56is a calm, serious and sincere man, aware of the power of the masses.
43:10But it was up to Brezhnev to decide.
43:15In the war for the Ogaden Desert, he gave priority to Mengistu's Ethiopia.
43:22The Red Army undertook its biggest foreign military intervention since the Korean War in the 1950s.
43:39In just six months, up to the summer of 1978, weapons and equipment valued at over a billion dollars were
43:46sent to Ethiopia.
43:49Fidel Castro added 11,000 of his own soldiers.
43:52A huge military force that crushed the US-backed Somali army.
44:07Once again, the proxy battle between the two superpowers ended in a Soviet victory.
44:20But the USSR's relationship with the United States had reached a breaking point.
44:30Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, later wrote,
44:36Detente was lost in the Ogaden Desert.
44:41It was time for America to strike back.
44:48In 1981, Ronald Reagan became the new occupant of the White House.
44:55For him, the USSR was nothing less than an evil empire that had to be destroyed at all costs.
45:04And it seemed like a good time to strike.
45:08For the past two years, the Soviet Union had been bogged down in Afghanistan, where it was draining precious resources.
45:16Reagan wanted to deliver the death blow and launched a new arms race, dubbed Star Wars.
45:27The Strategic Defense Initiative, an extensive research and development program,
45:32is designed to explore ways of defending America and its allies from ballistic missile attack.
45:39Great progress has been made since the program began.
45:45Freed from the burden of Vietnam, the Americans were able to focus on the African continent again.
45:54Reagan received Jonas Zavimbi of Angola's UNITA, an opponent of the existing socialist government in power,
46:00and reaffirmed his support.
46:08Washington also reviewed its relations with South Africa, where the apartheid policy was becoming increasingly problematic.
46:19Numerous riots broke out in the townships, where the black population was concentrated.
46:24The South African army violently suppressed them.
46:35The United States had to distance itself from this repression.
46:47South African politicians, Westerners, and ANC opposition leaders secretly began negotiations.
46:56For the first time, white leaders contemplated abolishing apartheid.
47:01And in exchange, the ANC, hitherto supported by Moscow, promised to abandon its socialist policies.
47:12By the mid-1980s, communism was no longer inspiring African people.
47:17On the contrary, its record had been disastrous.
47:30Notably, with the faithful comrade Mengistu in Ethiopia, land collectivization led to terrible famine.
47:39In the north-eastern province of Walo alone, it claimed the lives of over 500,000 people.
47:52In Moscow, the aging political class had no answer to the erosion of its influence.
47:59The Red Empire had its own economic problems to contend with.
48:09Appointed head of the Communist Party in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev recognized his country's difficulties.
48:18Under his leadership, the USSR began to withdraw from Africa.
48:24So, when Eritrean independence fighters threatened to break away in northern Ethiopia, Gorbachev did not support Mengistu.
48:33This was partly due to a lack of resources.
48:36But, above all, it was because good relations with Europe and the United States had become his priority.
48:46Commenting on Africa, Andrei Kozyrov, the soon-to-be Minister of Foreign Affairs, said,
48:53The majority of developing countries do not suffer so much from capitalism as from its absence.
49:02An admission of failure in 1988 that heralded the definitive end of the Soviet project in Africa.
49:15One year later, the Berlin Wall fell.
49:20And two years later, the Soviet Union was dismantled.
49:34The Cold War was over.
49:37And on the African continent, the alliances that had been woven over more than 30 years collapsed like a house
49:44of cards.
49:47America successively dropped its anti-communist pawns.
49:51Mobutu in Zaire and Zavimbi in Angola.
49:56In Ethiopia, Mengistu declared his intention to abandon communism and opened up the country to a mixed economy.
50:05An opportunistic change of heart that did nothing to prevent the breakup of Eritrea,
50:09the last African country to gain its independence in 1993.
50:17In 1994, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela became the first president of a new South Africa.
50:33Polish journalist, Ryszard Kapuczynski wrote,
50:37In Africa, the Cold War was waged in a particularly brutal and cynical way.
50:43And Africa was incapable of doing anything to stop the slaughter.
50:55The end of the Cold War provided Africa with the opportunity to regain control of its fate.
51:03In 2002, the Organization of African Unity became the African Union.
51:11A new tool for economic and political cooperation and a deterrent to the foreign greed that continues to prey on
51:18Africa.
51:22Americans, Europeans, Russians and Chinese alike are investing in the continent to exploit its precious resources.
51:32Americans, Europeans, Russians and Chinese alike are investing in the world's future.
51:33To mark the 60th anniversary of the African Union in 2023, its president warned against a potentially dangerous future.
51:40The will of each and of the others threaten to transform Africa into a field of geostrategic battle.
51:48By creating a new version of the cold war, we have to resist all forms of instrumentalization of our members.
52:03The challenge for Africa is to confront the new forces of imperialism and prevent history from repeating itself.
52:29A'
52:47Legenda Adriana Zanotto