In the book "The Empire which does not want to die: a history of Françafrique", French and African authors review the tumultuous relations between Paris and African capitals. A book not to be missed.
It took almost a thousand pages, two years of work and twenty contributors to tell the story - and the future? - from Françafrique. While Emmanuel Macron tries, as best he can, to review relations between France and Africa, often awkwardly, the book "The empire that does not want to die: a history of Françafrique", published by Threshold, is of public utility. “Wars, looting, racism, coups d'état, corruption, assassinations…”: the banner presenting the book promises great revelations. It is in any case a beautiful study on the subject.
Thomas Borrel, Amzat Boukari-Yabara, Benoît Collombat and Thomas Deltombe, the four editors, brought together French and African authors to propose "a rereading of neocolonialism in the aftermath of the Second World War". All return to Françafrique, from the Fourth Republic to Vincent Bolloré, via François Mitterrand.
Over the pages, we realize that the beautiful “love story” between France and Africa, desired by Emmanuel Macron, is utopian. The authors describe to us behind the scenes, but also the gray areas, of relations between France and its former colonies. They also decipher the consequences of the latter. If colonization is obviously mentioned, six periods are particularly treated in the book, from the Second World War to the mandate of Emmanuel Macron.
Everything goes there, in particular the role of Jacques Foccart, one of the symbols of Françafrique, at the beginning of the 1960s. At the time, from the Elysee Palace, France manipulated countries, from Togo to Cameroon. The book describes precisely how Paris destabilized certain states, had presidents assassinated or helped dictators to maintain their hold on their populations. Sometimes without hiding, sometimes in the shadows.
Love stories usually end badly
The authors also show that the term "Françafrique" has not had the same meaning over the decades. From the origins of Franco-African policy and the establishment of the system to a very commercial relationship, symbolized by the establishment of large hexagonal groups on the continent - Total or Bolloré -, the directors of the book thus summarize the evolution of Françafrique, which "has melted into globalization without dissolving".
The back cover sums up the problem well. “In Paris, we hear the same refrain everywhere: 'Françafrique is dead and buried!' However, from Ouagadougou to Libreville, from Dakar to Yaoundé, from Bamako to Abidjan, the youth are revolting against what they perceive as a French stranglehold on their destiny ”. It's not the Africa-France summit in Montpellier which will contradict this observation. If "France has officially granted independence to its former African colonies", it is "a trompe-l'oeil freedom", summarizes the editor.
But as in any love affair, no matter how bad it is, it's not easy to pull away from each other. Françafrique is, in reality, "a system that all French presidents have allowed to prosper, despite promises of 'rupture'". The publisher does not hesitate to speak of this Françafrique as "a system set up against the interests of the peoples, with the consent of part of the African elites, and which always benefits the autocrats 'friends of France'" .
“The empire that does not want to die: a history of Françafrique” (Editions du Seuil), € 25.