France's Private African Domain, 1947–1991

Elizabeth Schmidt

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139021371.009

7 - France's Private African Domain, 1947–1991

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013

Elizabeth Schmidt

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Elizabeth Schmidt: Affiliation:
Loyola University Maryland

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This chapter, unlike Chapters 2–6, does not focus on a regional case study. Rather, it examines Francophone sub-Saharan Africa during the period 1947–91, exploring the dynamics of a decolonization process that was intended to bind African territories to France politically and economically. Although Cold War concerns influenced this process, the greatest perceived threat was not the Soviet Union but French communists and their allies, along with the United States, which embodied a perceived Anglophone menace to French interests. From 1944 to 1958, France implemented a series of colonial reforms that were intended to thwart the growth of radical nationalism and to forestall any movement toward independence. While the majority parties in most territories ultimately embraced the French reform programs, those in Madagascar, Cameroon, and Guinea resisted French prescriptions and suffered strong reprisals as a result. Their experiences are described here. Although France was eventually forced to concede independence to the majority of its territories, most of them established neocolonial states in which French interests continued to dominate politically, economically, and even militarily.

During the periods of decolonization and the Cold War, France, like the superpowers, intervened in African countries to protect its interests, shoring up allies and subverting enemies. During the period 1960–91, France was second only to Cuba in the number of troops deployed on African soil, and Paris conducted more than three dozen military interventions in sixteen African countries. The cases of Cameroon, Niger, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Zaire are considered in this chapter. Even after African nations gained their independence, Paris assumed that interference in the affairs of its former territories was its natural right. Its Western allies generally concurred, considering only Eastern Bloc and Cuban involvement to be “foreign aggression” and preferring French to Soviet influence. Despite their commonality of interests, France and its Anglophone allies experienced considerable tension as they jockeyed for position in postcolonial Africa. As a result, they sometimes supported opposing factions in African power struggles.

Type: Chapter
Information: Foreign Intervention in Africa
From the Cold War to the War on Terror
, pp. 164 - 192

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139021371.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2013

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References

For an overview of decolonization in French sub-Saharan Africa, three books are especially recommended. Morgenthau's, Ruth Schachter classic, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1964), is an in-depth political history that focuses on local, territorial, and international levels and provides unique insights into African parties and activists. Edward Mortimer's France and the Africans, 1944–1960: A Political History (New York: Walker and Co., 1969), a more traditional political history with an expansive view from above, offers a detailed account of colonial reforms and their implementation. Tony Chafer's The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization? (New York: Berg, 2002) examines the wider political context of decolonization, the growth of popular pressures for reform and independence, and the French response.Google Scholar

Several authors examine political movements in territories that resisted French reform programs and the consequences they suffered. For Madagascar, see Kent, Raymond K., The Many Faces of an Anti-Colonial Revolt: Madagascar's Long Journey into 1947 (Albany, CA: Foundation for Malagasy Studies, 2007); Martin Shipway, “Madagascar on the Eve of Insurrection, 1944–47: The Impasse of a Liberal Colonial Policy,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 24, no. 1 (January 1996): 72–100; and Douglas Little, “Cold War and Colonialism in Africa: The United States, France, and the Madagascar Revolt of 1947,” Pacific Historical Review 59, no. 4 (November 1990): 527–52. For Cameroon, see Richard A. Joseph, Radical Nationalism in Cameroun: Social Origins of the U.P.C. Rebellion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977); Meredith Terretta, “Cameroonian Nationalists Go Global: From Forest Maquis to a Pan-African Accra,” Journal of African History 51, no. 2 (2010): 189–212; and Meredith Terretta, Nation of Outlaws, State of Violence: Nationalism, Grassfields Tradition, and State-Building in Cameroon (Athens: Ohio University Press, forthcoming 2013). For Guinea, see Elizabeth Schmidt, Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946–1958 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007).Google Scholar

For background on Franco-American competition in Africa during the periods of decolonization and the Cold War, see Huliaras, Asteris C., “The ‘Anglosaxon Conspiracy’: French Perceptions of the Great Lakes Crisis,” Journal of Modern African Studies 36, no. 4 (December 1998): 593–609. See also Philip E. Muehlenbeck's Betting on the Africans: John F. Kennedy's Courting of African Nationalist Leaders (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), which includes an insightful chapter titled “The Kennedy-de Gaulle Rivalry in Africa.”CrossRef Google Scholar

For further reading on neocolonialism in former French Africa, a number of works are recommended. Le Vine's, Victor T.Politics in Francophone Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004) examines continued French domination of the political, economic, and military spheres of fourteen former territories in sub-Saharan Africa. Bruno Charbonneau's France and the New Imperialism: Security Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008) explores continuities in Franco-African relations from conquest through the postcolonial period, focusing especially on military, business, and personal connections. Alexander Keese's “First Lessons in Neo-Colonialism: The Personalisation of Relations Between African Politicians and French Officials in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1956–66,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 35, no. 4 (December 2007): 593–613, assesses the French policy of cultivating personal relationships with postindependence African leaders as a way of maintaining influence. Several older articles, which focus on continued French involvement in African political, economic, military, and cultural spheres, provide useful summaries. See especially Richard Joseph, “The Gaullist Legacy: Patterns of French Neo-Colonialism,” Review of African Political Economy, no. 6 (May–August 1976): 4–13; Guy Martin, “The Historical, Economic, and Political Bases of France's African Policy,” Journal of Modern African Studies 23, no. 2 (June 1985): 189–208; and Martin Staniland, “Francophone Africa: The Enduring French Connection,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 489 (January 1987): 51–62.Google Scholar

A number of articles focus specifically on Franco-African military cooperation agreements, the presence in Africa of French troops and bases, and French military intervention in independent African states. Four are especially recommended: Lellouche, Pierre and Moisi, Dominique, “French Policy in Africa: A Lonely Battle against Destabilization,” International Security 3, no. 4 (Spring 1979): 108–33; Robin Luckham, “French Militarism in Africa,” Review of African Political Economy, no. 24 (May–August 1982): 55–84; James O. Goldsborough, “Dateline Paris: Africa's Policeman,” Foreign Policy, no. 33 (Winter 1978–79): 174–90; and Shaun Gregory, “The French Military in Africa: Past and Present,” African Affairs 99, no. 396 (July 2000): 435–48. Douglas Porch's The French Secret Services: From the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995) includes information on the role of the French secret services in destabilizing, toppling, or maintaining African governments. Alexander Keese's “Building a New Image of Africa: ‘Dissident States’ and the Emergence of French Neo-Colonialism in the Aftermath of Decolonization,” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 48, no. 3 (2008): 513–30, in contrast, focuses on cases in which France chose not to intervene.CrossRef Google Scholar

A number of works focus on French political, economic, and military intervention in specific countries. For Cameroon, see Joseph and Terretta (mentioned above). For Niger, see three important studies by Walraven, Klaas van: “Decolonization by Referendum: The Anomaly of Niger and the Fall of Sawaba, 1958–1959,” Journal of African History 50, no. 2 (July 2009): 269–92; “From Tamanrasset: The Struggle of Sawaba and the Algerian Connection, 1957–1966,” Journal of North African Studies 10, nos. 3–4 (September–December 2005): 507–27; and The Yearning for Relief: A History of the Sawaba Movement in Niger (Leiden: Brill, 2013). For Gabon, see Michael C. Reed, “Gabon: A Neo-Colonial Enclave of Enduring French Interest,” Journal of Modern African Studies 25, no. 2 (June 1987): 283–320. For the Central African Republic, see Brian Titley, Dark Age: The Political Odyssey of Emperor Bokassa (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997). For French involvement in Chad's civil wars, see J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins, Africa's Thirty Years’ War: Libya, Chad, and the Sudan, 1963–1993 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), and René Lemarchand, “The Crisis in Chad,” in African Crisis Areas and U.S. Foreign Policy, ed. Gerald J. Bender, James S. Coleman, and Richard L. Sklar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985): 239–56. For French intervention in Zaire during the Shaba invasions, see Piero Gleijeses, “Truth or Credibility: Castro, Carter, and the Invasions of Shaba,” International History Review 18, no. 1 (February 1996): 70–103.CrossRef Google Scholar

Franco-African relations at the end of the Cold War are explored in Martin's, Guy “Continuity and Change in Franco-African Relations,” Journal of Modern African Studies 33, no. 1 (March 1995): 1–20, which examines the impact of the end of the Cold War, European integration, and globalization on Franco-African relations. Pearl T. Robinson's “The National Conference Phenomenon in Francophone Africa,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 36, no. 3 (July 1994): 575–610, explores the impact of popular prodemocracy movements and French pressure in the implementation of political reforms in French-speaking Africa.CrossRef Google Scholar

Chaffard, Georges, Les Carnets Secrets de la Décolonisation (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1967), 2Google Scholar

Moisi, Dominique, “French Policy in Africa: A Lonely Battle against Destabilization,” International Security 3, no. 4 (Spring 1979), 116n15Google Scholar

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