A CLASSIFIED AFFAIR - GDR POLICY ON AFRICA AND THE MFS

Various African countries have inherited legacies which have been shap ed to a substantial extent by the former USSR and its allies. This inc luded the provision of the instruments and apparatus of a secret servi ce, afield in which the former GDR played a derisive role. This is obv iously an aspect which could hardly be illuminated at the time, but wh ich has now become accessible to researchers. In the following article , Hans-Georg Schleicher, head of the diplomatic observer mission of th e GDR in Namibia between 1980 and 1990, ambassador of the GDR in Zimba bwe from 1983 to 1988, and academic assistant at the History Departmen t of the University of Hanover since 1994, and UlfEngel, academic assi stant at the Institute of African Studies in Hamburg, examine the deve lopment of the GDR's engagement in Africa in the field of secret servi ce activities since the Sixties.