Training for African diplomats at independence and the archives of internationalism

Abstract

With decolonisation, former colonies entered the international community as sovereign states, requiring trained diplomats. In the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of African diplomats-in-training travelled to the global North, and later to hubs in Africa, to attend bespoke programmes. This paper explores the archival traces of these training programmes and asks what they can tell us about how particular types of internationalism were taught and learned in the post-colonial world.

Drawing on archival collections found in locked filing cabinets and personal offices, as well as national and institutional archives, we make two contributions. First, we argue that diplomatic training offers an important new insight into internationalism by focusing attention on the everyday experiences of pedagogy and socialisation. Second, we show that such archives provide insight into the important professional networks beyond the global North that were the legacy of these programmes. We draw on our research in archival collections in Geneva, London, Paris, Oxford, and Yaoundé and reflect on the value of ephemera (such as postcards sent by alumni to programme administrators years after training was completed), as well as on the value of institutional anniversaries in spurring the collection of further materials, including oral histories, to supplement the written archive.