This book analyses the shifting patterns of Czechoslovak educational aid programmes for sub-Saharan African countries within the broader framework of the global debates on the nature of development aid in education discussed on the UNESCO grounds during the three “development decades.”

Starting in the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia sent abroad hundreds of experts hoping to stimulate the development of local educational and scientific institutions. However, over the years, the development aid to African countries transformed into a special form of foreign trade, and distribution of experts turned into a profitable business. Yet, the tendencies towards “sustainability” and “higher return on investment” in the field of development aid were not limited just to the socialist bloc but emerged globally. This book, therefore, not only revisits the roles of Czechoslovakia and Africa in the Cold War history but also reflects on the function of aid in international politics.

The Eastern Bloc and Sub-Saharan Africa will appeal to students and historians specializing in the global Cold War, and particularly those curious about development, international organizations, economic history and transfers of knowledge in transnational networks.

Barbora Buzássyová is a researcher at the Institute of History of Slovak Academy of Sciences. She focuses on Cold War History and Czechoslovak–Global South relations. She is the author of “Side by Side with the Fighting Nations”: Making the New Culture of Pro-African Solidarity in the Campaigns of the Czechoslovak Committee for Solidarity with African and Asian Peoples (2024).