The Congress for Cultural Freedom, modernization, and the cultural Cold War in Anglophone Africa, 1958-1967

This dissertation examines the Congress for Cultural Freedom's activities in Africa from 1958 until the organization's demise in 1967. During the Cold War, U.S. policymakers attempted to use the cultural realm to gain the support of intellectuals in their ideological war with the Soviet Union. This led to the creation of the international organization, the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) in 1950 which was covertly funded by the CIA. In the early 1950s, the majority of the Congress's activities were directed at European intellectuals in the form of publications, art exhibits, and festivals. Africa, however, became one of the new battlegrounds of the Cold War beginning in the late 1950s. As the CCF and the United States foreign policy establishment turned their attention to Africa, they moved away from the strident anti-communism that had characterized the early years of the Cold War, and instead, adopted the ideas of modernization theorists.;Modernization theory served as a way for the CCF to appeal to African elites who were wary of neo-colonialism. CCF conferences and publications promoting political and economic development along democratic capitalist lines attempted to put African nations on the capitalist, not Communist path to modernization. Early CCF conferences turned into sites of contestation, however, as modernization theorists were met with pushback from African intellectuals who viewed their traditions as more than just a means to stabilize "modern" institutions.;The CCF would change its tactics under the guidance of the sociologist and modernization theorist Edward Shils, to promote institutional development as a means to contain communism. Shils believed that "modern" institutions would foster the development of a rational elite who would provide stability and therefore prevent the spread of communism. The CCF focused on culturally "modernizing" the region by funding cultural centers, conferences, and sponsoring the Nigerian cultural journal Black Orpheus and the Ugandan journal Transition. In doing so, the CCF sought to foster an indigenous intellectual community, orient that community towards "the West," and foster discussions about development while constraining the terms of that debate.