France, the New World Order and the Francophone West African States: Towards a Reconceptualization of Privileged Relations

Abstract

Analysts have since agreed that there is a positive correlation between France’s major power status on the world stage and some of its exclusivist and privileged links with the sub-Saharan Francophone African states. In a post-1945 world order established at Yalta (at which France was not represented) and following the debacles in Indochina and, soon after in Algeria, it was perhaps only logical that France should seek to project power in that part of the continent where, according to its former Foreign Affairs Minister, the late Louis de Guiringaud, it could still change the course of history with only 500 men.¹ Be that as it may, Jacques Marseille² has reminded us in his very interesting study, that the idea of the French Empire had always been a private initiative and that this sector had largely benefited from the subsequent post-colonial relationships. Herein lies the problem. The continuing utility of some aspects and mechanisms of French–African relations is at the centre of an intellectual debate within the Hexagon. There is no shortage of criticism from the wide spectrum of French political parties and opinion of the diverse aspects of these privileged relations which have remained, with the exception of the 1972-73 reforms, almost basically intact ever since they were contracted on the eve of the independence of the African states in 1960.