Accredited to Africa: British diplomatic representation and African experience, c. 1960–95

Abstract

How justified is the complaint sometimes voiced by British businessmen and other UK visitors to contemporary Africa that, compared to ‘the [good old] colonial days’, Britain's FCO representatives have no experience of Africa and little idea about who's who and what's going on in their bailiwick? The aim of this article is to construct a professional profile of Britain's Heads of Mission assigned to newly independent African states over the past 35 years, with a view to assessing the extent of their African experience. This period also neatly coincides with what in one sense can be interpreted as a single FO generation, in that the mean entry age into the Diplomatic Service is around 25 and the maximum retiring age is a strict 60. The statistical biodata on which the argument is premised are presented in the 19 Mission Tables appended. The article concludes with an examination of the major issues surrounding the question of ‘African experience’ among those Heads of Mission.