The limits of French intervention in Africa: a study in applied neo-colonialism
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION:
The scope of this paper is both wider and narrower than might be suggested
by its title. It does not propose to offer a full analysis of French neocolonialism,
but neither will it be limited to a mere inventory of overt
French military actions of the type recently performed in Chad, Shaba or the
Central African Republic. Part of the ambiguity that the title of the paper
may occasion lies in the use of the term "intervention," which will be used to
designate a wide-ranging sequence of policy actions leading, whether deliberately
or not, to the crystallization of France's current posture in Africa.*
In its broadest sense, "intervention" can, and probably should, include
every form of concerted action (whether direct or indirect, overt or covert)
by one international actor on another for the purpose of altering, in a manner
favorable to the intervenor, the normal processes of operation in the targeted
society. In this perspective, it would be legitimate to claim that intervention,
or intrusion, by France or by other external powers in the affairs of
Africa begins almost from the moment when they first established contact with
African societies. The setting up of the slave trade itself was not intrinsically
perceived as interventionist, inasmuch as slaves were at that time
regarded by both sides as a legitimate trade commodity, but the supply of
firearms to native intermediaries who were expected to use their newlyacquired
technological superiority to pillage the hinterland in the forcible
procurement of slaves, or the exploitation of rivalries between indigenous
trading states were all forms of "intervention." Similarly, the imposition of
direct colonial rule and the attendant (and forcible) introduction of new
modes of production in African societies were clearly interventionist, as was
the later development of a colonial apparatus, with its mobilizational and
surplus-extracting effects.[TRUNCATED]
Description
African Studies Center Working Paper No. 54
License
Copyright © 1982, by the author.