Paradoxes of Predation in Francophone Africa

Abstract

Francophone sub-Saharan Africa today consists of 17 countries in which French is the main language of politics and government. While the French colonial empire no longer exists as a formal structure, the legacy of its former empire continues to influence French African policy. Through its cultural imperialism the common imprint of France upon this immense region is expressed in the French language, as well as its accompanying traditions of law, administration, and education. Through an ingenious system of bilateral cooperation accords, France has installed privileged relations with its former African colonies in culture, education, natural resources, aid, trade, finance, security, defense, and a common currency. Through continuous military interventions, France has perpetuated its strategic armed dominance. France is the only member of the UN Security Council to have an explicitly “African policy.” But the economic importance of Africa to France’s foreign policy must be understood as less about its macroeconomic importance to France as a whole than about its profitability to a small predatory lobby of influential French actors who conduct scandalous “African affairs.”