For the IAS Open Programme - 'Competing Socialisms: A Media History of the Sino-Soviet Rivalry in Africa during the Cold War', Loughborough colleague Dr Thoralf Klein delivers his talk "Fighting Imperialism – Forging Solidarity: Africa in PRC Visual Propaganda"
This paper analyses how the People’s Republic of China used propaganda posters as a powerful medium to foster solidarity among its population with the anti-imperialist struggle of African peoples during the Cold War period from the 1950s to the late 1980s. Moving beyond existing studies on the visual representations of ‘Africa’ and ‘Africans’, this paper focuses on three interconnected dimensions: firstly, it follows the trajectory of the posters’ core message from world peace to world revolution and back. Secondly, it examines how as a consequence of the Sino-Soviet split in the late 1950s and early 1960s, visual propaganda presented the PRC as a unique and distinct model of national reconstruction in the areas of ideology, technology and health care. While direct attacks on “Soviet revisionism” were rare, some of the relevant posters can be read as subtle critiques of the USSR’s ideology and policies. Finally, it demonstrates how the visual language of the posters sought to emotionalise the ties between Chinese and ‘Africans’ by showing close physical proximity between members of the two groups, underpinned by a specific rhetoric of bonding.
#ColdWar #Africa #China #Russia # Propaganda
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