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A Balance Sheet on External Assistance: France in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Robert D. Grey
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Extract

The situation of African states as they enter the 1990s is generally considered to be desperate. Extreme weakness in a number of forms characterises their politics, while their economies are either stagnant or deteriorating. It is not clear what resources are relevant to solving these problems, nor how they will be acquired, although increased external assistance obviously will be needed.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 101 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 This is a vital point. Despite its title, even a work like that of Nation, R. Craig and Kauppi, Mark V., The Soviet Impact in Africa (Lexington, 1984), virtually ignores Africa and focuses on the goals of the outside actors.Google Scholar Some radical critics of French involvement have assessed the impact – for example, Gosselin, Gabriel, L' Afrique désenchantée (Paris, 1978);Google ScholarPomonti, Jean-Claude, L'Afrique trahie (Paris, 1979);Google Scholar and Dumont, René and Mottin, Marie-France, L'Afrique étrangleée (Paris, 1982).Google Scholar See also Maspero, François, La France Contre l' Afrique (Paris, 1981),Google Scholar and Péan, Pierre, Affaires africaines (Paris, 1983).Google Scholar

2 For example, Legum, Colin, ‘The African Environment’, in Problems of Communism (Washington, D.C.), 27, 1, 01–02 1978, pp. 1–19, which emphasises African conditions, and the invitations of African leaders, in bringing outsiders into Africa.Google Scholar

3 For two French examples of this, see Georgy, Guy, then Director of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘La Politique africaine de la France’, in Mondes et cultures (Paris), 34, 2, 1979, pp. 109–17,Google Scholar and de Guiringaud, Louis, then a French ambassador and formerly Foreign Minister, ‘La Politique africaine de la France’, in Politique etrangère (Paris), 47, 2, 06 1982, pp. 441–55.Google Scholar

4 A striking instance of this phenomenon is the expansion that has taken place in the number of African governments represented at the annual summits between the French President and African Heads of State. Initially attended by only the Presidents of former French colonies, these meetings have been expanded in stages to include numerous other African leaders.

5 According to a Malagasy journalist, quoted by Martin, Guy, ‘The Historical, Economic, and Political Bases of France's African Policy’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 23, 2, 06 1985, p. 204, ‘The futility of debating African affairs among Africans has now become clear. In order to prevent intra-African conflicts, the Africans must necessarily call on France.’CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 See Guillemin, Jacques, ‘L'Intervention extérieure dans la politique militaire de la France en Afrique noire francophone et à Madagascar’, in Le Mois en Afrique (Dakar), 07 1981, pp. 43–58.Google Scholar

7 For arguments that link the differing colonial experiences to the emergence of one-party régimes, and then to their proclivity to coups, see Collier, Ruth B., Regimes in Tropical Africa (Berkeley, 1982), pp. 95–117.Google Scholar

8 See Martin, Guy, ‘The France Zone, Underdevelopment and Dependency in Francophone Africa’, in Third World Quarterly (London), 8, 1, 01 1986, pp. 205–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 World Bank, World Development Report, 1985 (New York, 1985), p. 208.Google Scholar According to ibid. 1989, p. 200, by the middle and late 1980s Japanese contributions exceeded these of France.

10 Masquet, Brigitte, ‘France–Afrique: dépasser les contradictions’, in Afrique contemporaine (Paris), 21, 119, 01–02 1982, p. 23, discusses the coopérants as well as other aspects of the French economic presence in Africa.Google Scholar

11 Boyd, J. Barron Jr, ‘France and the Third World; the African connection’, in Philip, Taylor and Gregory, A. Raymond (eds.), Third World Policies of Industrialized Nations (Westport, Conn., 1982), p. 47.Google Scholar

12 See World Development Report, 1989, pp. 166–7. But since the World Bank does not publish the data used in my dependents variables for states with a population of less than a million, the Comoros have been omitted from my calculations.

13 Despite the number of disadvantages emphasised by Mortin, ‘The Franc Zone’, most members stay and some, who did not, have returned.

14 An earlier version of this study, using data from Legum, Colin (eds.), Africa Contemporary Record, 1982–1982 (London and New York, 1983), p. c41, for allocation of loans and grands and grants by the Caisse centrale de cooperation économique, 1977–1980, found a much higher correlation between such aid and higher groeth, as well as increased debt. During this period the correlation between aid and infant mortality was far weaker than it has been for the 1980s.Google Scholar

15 Using figures taken from Boyd, loc. cit., that combined France's percentage of each francophone state's imports and exports for the 1970s, I found relationships that were positive but weak between trade and growth, weak and negative between trade and the growth of external debt, and none between trade and infant mortality.

16 There seems to be an implicit understanding between France and the United Atates that there is virtually no yôle for Amercans in francophone Africa. This triangulat relationship needs to be studied more closely.

17 Cf. Bayart, Jean-FrançoisLa Politique africaine de François Mitterrand (Paris,1984).Google Scholar

18 See Young, Grawford, Ideology and Development in Africa (New Haven 1982), pp. 22–96 253–326.Google Scholar