Taking Third World Solidarity with a Pinch of Salt: Socialist Poland’s policies towards 1960s Mali

Abstract

This article focuses on the policies of Socialist Poland towards the non-aligned Pan-African state of Mali during the Presidency of Modibo Keita (1960-1968). Mali was one of three ‘radical’ West African states in which the Eastern bloc and the People’s Republic of China made inroads in the first post-colonial decade. Poland, like other Eastern bloc countries, placed great emphasis in its public diplomacy on support of ‘Third World’ countries as they freed themselves from colonialism. The article shows that, in the case of Mali, these publicly stated aims sharply contrasted with socialist Poland’s policies on the ground.