{"id":10,"date":"2014-07-04T10:38:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T09:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2025-01-06T12:18:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T12:18:18","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?page_id=10","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Researching and writing about \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019 refers to the study of the history, politics, societies and cultures of those parts of Africa formerly under French colonial rule. The term is problematic. It might suggest that people in this part of the world are (exclusively) \u2018Francophones\u2019, i.e., French-speakers. Yet whilst many do speak French, those that do are at least bilingual, also speaking their mother tongue of Arabic, Tamazight, Wolof, Bambara… \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019 might suggest studying Africa through the lens of the European colonial powers as they carved up the continent amongst themselves in the late nineteenth century, producing artificial boundaries that in no way corresponded with African understandings of territory and patterns of belonging. The term might suggest a narrow emphasis on exploring and denouncing neo-colonialism, reproducing a somewhat stereotyped and ahistorical vision of Africa as stuck in the same patterns of dependency as those of the colonial period.<\/p>\n

So why are we sticking with \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019? First and foremost, because this is what makes us distinctive. In the UK, the majority of \u2018African Studies\u2019 still tends to focus on those countries which were formerly part of the British empire \u2013 this is \u2018Anglophone Africa\u2019 in all but name. Our focus is on countries previously under the radar \u2013 but increasingly visible \u2013 in the English-speaking world, such as Algeria, Senegal, Mali, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2026 Without implying an essentialist or deterministic understanding of ‘Francophone’ – or indeed ‘Anglophone’, we accept that there were particularities of French rule in the past, and particularities of French influence in the present, and that this has had material impacts which justifies an initial lumping together of ‘Francophone African’ countries as a starting point for analysis.\u00a0We take the name \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019 as a challenge, \u00a0exploring connections and exchanges across \u2018Francophone\u2019 and \u2018Anglophone\u2019 Africa in both the colonial and post-colonial periods, writing \u2018south-south\u2019 histories which bypass the colonial \u2018centre\u2019, seeking to uncover multiple voices and perspectives, and questioning just how \u2018Francophone\u2019 \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019 is today in a context of increasing globalisation.<\/p>\n

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Why \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019? Researching and writing about \u2018Francophone Africa\u2019 refers to the study of the history, politics, societies and cultures of those parts of Africa formerly under French colonial rule. The term is problematic. It might suggest that people in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3303,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/3303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}