1st Edition
Routledge Handbook of Francophone Africa
The Routledge Handbook of Francophone Africa brings together a multidisciplinary team of international experts to reflect on the history, politics, societies, and cultures of French-speaking parts of Africa.
Consisting of approximately 35% of Africa’s territory, Francophone Africa is a shifting concept, with its roots in French and Belgian colonial rule. This handbook develops and problematizes the term, with thematic sections covering:
- Colonial and post-colonial ties between France and sub-Saharan Africa
- Belgium, Belgian colonialism and Africa
- The Maghreb
- African Francophones in France
- Francophone African literature and film
- ‘Francophone’ and ‘Anglophone’ Africa
- Beyond national boundaries and ‘colonial partners’
The chapters demonstrate the evolution of "Francophone Africa" into a multi-dimensional construct, with both a material and an imagined reality. Materially, it defines a regional territorial space that coexists with other conceptualisations of African space and borders. Conceptually, Francophone Africa constitutes a shared linguistic and cultural space within which collective memories are shared, not least through their connection to the French imperial imagination. Overall, the Handbook demonstrates that as global power structures and relations evolve, African agency is increasingly assertive in shaping French-African relations.
Bringing this important debate together into a single volume, this Handbook will be an essential resource for students and scholars interested in Francophone Africa.
Introduction
Tony Chafer & Margaret A. Majumdar
Section 1. Colonial and post-colonial ties between France and sub-Saharan Africa
- Colonialism and Decolonisation in French sub-Saharan Africa
- Françafrique
- The Durability of the "Gendarme de l'Afrique": from Empire to Fighting Terrorism
- Francophonie and Africa: Past, Present and Future Perspectives
- France and Francophone Africa: An Enduring Financial and Economic Relationship faced with Uncertainty
- Colonial Medicine in French West Africa: Scientists for Empire from the origins to independence 1960
- French Schools in sub-Saharan Africa
- Reconciling with the Past and Looking to the Future: The Place of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais in Post-Colonial Senegal
- Belgian colonisation in Africa and decolonisation
- Facing ghosts: Lumumba Shadows
- Guilty Imaginaries: rethinking language and ethnicity in post-colonial Rwanda and Burundi
- Language Policies in Algeria since 1962: Identity Renewal in the Light of Realpolitik Imperatives
- The Languages of Democracy in post 2011 Tunisia
- Maghrebi Francophonies: from the Colonial to the Postcolonial and Beyond
- "A Great Gang of Black and Brown Humanity": The Lives and Politics of African Migrants in Twentieth Century France, from Vagabonds and Transients to Maritime Labourers and Intellectuals
- Postcolonial Migration, Racism and Culture: France and North Africa
- Cultural Pan-Africanism in Twentieth Century France
- "Our lives are political!" Afrofeminism in France or the fightback of the granddaughters of Empire
- The Road to 2005: How the Memory of Colonialism in France Became a Substitute for Race
- Colonial/ Postcolonial Francophonies in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Topicality to Universality
- The problematic location of Reunionese literature within Francophone studies
- How African languages free Francophone African cinema
- ‘Francophones’ and ‘Anglophones’ in Cameroon: Official bilingualism, language competition and everyday practice
- A Postcolonial appraisal of Francophone/ Anglophone relations in Cameroon
- The Commonwealth of Nations and ‘francophone’ Africa: bridging the colonial divides?
- Pan-Africanism in francophone West Africa: continuity vs rupture
- Francophone Africa beyond 'colonial partners': French-speaking countries' economic cooperation with China
- From Regional Organisations to Coalition Interventions: Francophone Africa and contemporary security challenges
Alexander Keese
Tony Chafer
Bruno Charbonneau
Margaret A. Majumdar
Francois Gaulme
Adama Aly Pam
Françoise Blum
Ruth Ginio
Section 2. Belgium, Belgian colonialism and Africa
Guy Vanthemsche
Fernanda Vilar
Pierre Boizette
Section 3. The Maghreb
Yassine Temlali
Charis Boutieri
Zineb Ali Ben Ali
Section 4. Francophones in France
Jennifer Boittin
Jonathan Lewis
Rachel Gillett
Silyane Larcher
Itay Lotem
Section 5. Francophone African Literature and Film
Saliou Dione
Laetitia Saint-Loubert
Amadou Kone
Section 6. ‘Francophone’ and ‘Anglophone’ Africa
Gratien G. Atindogbe & Koumassol Midinette Endurence Dissake
Nkwenti Fru
Melanie Torrent
Section 7. Beyond national boundaries and 'colonial partners'
Kalilou Sidibé
Claude Sumata
Malte Brosig & Bastien Nivet
Biography
Tony Chafer is Emeritus Professor of African and French Studies at the University of Portsmouth and a Fellow of the Society for Peace Studies and Practice, University of Ibadan. He is a historian specializing on Francophone Africa and French relations with Africa in the late colonial and post-colonial periods. His monograph La fin de l’empire colonial français en Afrique de l’Ouest: entre utopie et désillusion was published by Presses Universitaires de Rennes in 2019. He edited (with Alexander Keese) Francophone Africa at Fifty (2013). He recently published ‘Beyond Françafrique – the state of relations between France and Africa’, Europa World (Routledge, 2023). He has also published widely on French military and security policy in Africa.
Margaret A. Majumdar is Emeritus Professor of Francophone Studies at the University of Portsmouth. She has published extensively on French political philosophy and the Francophone dimension of postcoloniality. Her publications include Post-coloniality: The French Dimension (2007); Transition and Development in Algeria: Economic, Social and Cultural Challenges (with M. Saad, 2005); Francophone Studies: The Essential Glossary (2002); and Althusser and the End of Leninism? (1995).
