Book review of, The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order 1945-1966

Abstract

Offering an Africa-centered perspective, The Ideological Scramble for Africa challenges the prevailing scholarly view that the Cold War shaped the postcolonial order. Frank Gerits argues instead that in the two decades following World War 2 (1945-1966), the competition between capitalists and communists was only one of multiple ideological struggles. More significant was the
battle between North and South, that is, the struggle between imperialists, who championed European cultural norms, and liberationists, who respected African cultural values.