This lecture, based on his forthcoming book (Hurst and Oxford University Press), identifies the increasing salience of the idea of la Françafrique as new African military regimes deploy it as a tool of regime legitimation. It also highlights the deep flaws inherent to this idea, which identifies Paris as the driving force of most major political events in African postcolonial history and which has historically prioritized activism over scholarly integrity. Nevertheless, the Françafrique literature has underappreciated strengths for writing about Africa and the West more broadly: its transnational, interdisciplinary, longue durée approach foregrounds the connections between Africa and France rather than emphasizing the artificial siloes into which Western and African states are often segregated in IR.
Joe Gazeley is an FNRS postdoctoral fellow at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He was previously an Associate Lecturer in French and African History at the University of St Andrews (2021-23). He gained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and has previously held a Scouloudi research fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research (2020-21) and a visiting postgraduate research fellowship in Paris co-hosted by IMAF (Institut des mondes africains) and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (2019). His research has been supported by the FNRS, Scouloudi Foundation, the BISA Founders Fund, Erasmus+ and a Tweedie Exploration Fellowship.
