France’s african policy in transition : disengagement and redeployment

Abstract

Resumen: This essay is an inquiry into the nature and substance of current French policy towards Africa. More specifically, it is an attempt to answer the following question: is France’s African policy truly in transition between oldstyle neo-colonial and patrimonial type of policies characterized by intimate and quasi-familial relations between the French and francophone African elites –variously referred to as le village franco-africain,1 or la Françafrique2 – and a new policy in which francophone Africa is subsumed within a broader Third World policy, thus becoming normalized (normalisée and banalisée)? In other words, is France resolutely moving away from its traditional policy of domaine réservé and chasse gardée toward a politico-diplomatic, military and economic and financial disengagement from, and redeployment in Africa? In brief, are we truly witnessing a decolonization of Franco-African relations?