Africa, the West and the Durability of Historic Colonial Ties: Exploring the Growing Salience of la Françafrique in the 21st Century with Joe Gazeley

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.