On February 28, the German Historical Institute Washington – Pacific Office Berkeley, in tandem with the Institute of European Studies, the Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, and the Center for Race and Gender, hosted a presentation featuring Professor Sara Pugach from Cal State LA, for an audience of 12 people.
Pugach introduced the topic of her current research on Africans who studied in the German Democratic Republic. Set against the backdrop of Cold War politics, Pugach’s paper focuses on the impacts that education in East Germany had on visiting students from Africa. Specifically, her research questions to what degree did East Germany’s Marxist policies and educational norms influenced these students in their later careers.
Pugach argues that students from African countries who were educated in East Germany remained largely ambivalent to Marxist and Leninist ideology. Most students who went to East Germany did not have a pre-existing interest in Marxism but rather were simply assigned to go by their government. Pugach added that even for students who were interested in communist politics, many found East Germany’s Marxism to be frictional with, and sometimes discriminatory against, traditional conceptions of African socialism.
Through further research, however, Pugach found that specifically examining students who chose to pursue doctorates told a different story. Pugach’s research indicates that graduate students may have been more influenced by Marxism in East Germany. In proving this hypothesis, Pugach’s presentation focused on two Nigerian students, Modilim Achufusi and Obarogie Ohonbamu. Both Achufusi and Ohonbamu pursued their Ph.D.s in the social sciences at Karl Marx University in East Germany. Following their education, both became academics whose writings frequently expressed the value of Marxist thought.
Pugach’s research is not yet complete. In the coming months, Pugacg hopes to conduct interviews with the relatives of African students who were educated in East Germany, scour archives for the writings of those students, and continue finding case studies to explore.