Elvine Belinda Andjembe Etogho, Sphynx Egbe-Mbah Eben, Amy L. Dalton
{"title":"French Neocolonialism in Africa: Historical Overview and Summary of Current Events","authors":"Elvine Belinda Andjembe Etogho, Sphynx Egbe-Mbah Eben, Amy L. Dalton","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12493","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>It is widely understood that, over a half-century ago, most nations of Africa gained formal independence from colonial powers. What is not widely known is that in former French and Portuguese colonies, France was able to retain a significant degree of control over the economics and politics through a neocolonial system dubbed <i>la Françafrique</i>. Under that system, France has made use of the CFA franc, the management of natural resources, and one-sided commercial contracts to siphon off much of the economic surplus generated by these 23 nations. In addition, France has effectively installed puppet governments in many nations and stifled dissent throughout the continent. Dissent against French domination of Africa has occurred at various times during the long period of <i>Françafrique</i>, and has intensified significantly in recent years. Several governments in West Africa are now openly rebelling against France, and diasporan communities and influential individuals are increasingly speaking out to support and interpret this dissent. This article provides an historical overview of <i>Françafrique</i>, reviews its current impacts, and sketches the contours of the growing movement to dismantle it.</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"81 5","pages":"829-849"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.12493","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
It is widely understood that, over a half-century ago, most nations of Africa gained formal independence from colonial powers. What is not widely known is that in former French and Portuguese colonies, France was able to retain a significant degree of control over the economics and politics through a neocolonial system dubbed la Françafrique. Under that system, France has made use of the CFA franc, the management of natural resources, and one-sided commercial contracts to siphon off much of the economic surplus generated by these 23 nations. In addition, France has effectively installed puppet governments in many nations and stifled dissent throughout the continent. Dissent against French domination of Africa has occurred at various times during the long period of Françafrique, and has intensified significantly in recent years. Several governments in West Africa are now openly rebelling against France, and diasporan communities and influential individuals are increasingly speaking out to support and interpret this dissent. This article provides an historical overview of Françafrique, reviews its current impacts, and sketches the contours of the growing movement to dismantle it.
期刊介绍：
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology (AJES) was founded in 1941, with support from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, to encourage the development of transdisciplinary solutions to social problems. In the introduction to the first issue, John Dewey observed that “the hostile state of the world and the intellectual division that has been built up in so-called ‘social science,’ are … reflections and expressions of the same fundamental causes.” Dewey commended this journal for its intention to promote “synthesis in the social field.” Dewey wrote those words almost six decades after the social science associations split off from the American Historical Association in pursuit of value-free knowledge derived from specialized disciplines. Since he wrote them, academic or disciplinary specialization has become even more pronounced. Multi-disciplinary work is superficially extolled in major universities, but practices and incentives still favor highly specialized work. The result is that academia has become a bastion of analytic excellence, breaking phenomena into components for intensive investigation, but it contributes little synthetic or holistic understanding that can aid society in finding solutions to contemporary problems. Analytic work remains important, but in response to the current lop-sided emphasis on specialization, the board of AJES has decided to return to its roots by emphasizing a more integrated and practical approach to knowledge.
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