International Journal of Francophone Studies - Volume 19, Issue 1, 2016

This article aims to examine the transformation of the French colonial empire. Immediately after the end of World War II, the principle of French colonial policy was assimilation, but in the mid-1950s, France suddenly changed its stance towards decolonization. This move would culminate in the year 1960, when most French overseas territories won independence. The turning-point is, as usually argued, the so-called Loi-cadre in 1956, which allowed self-government in each overseas territory. Few works, however, have addressed the question of how and why the French government decided to turn to decolonization. This work points to the links between Tunisian internal autonomy and sub-Saharan African affairs. Indeed, Paris’s decision to lead Tunisia to internal autonomy through the Carthage Declaration in July 1954 meant that France chose collaboration with the nationalists and adopted a new way of preserving its influence: decolonization. This calculation greatly prompted the French to embark on the reorganization of their colonial empire as a whole.

This article aims to show that the illusion that independence had been won following the war of national liberation in Algeria did not give the newly decolonized population the opportunity to grasp the reality of the economic and social situation into which they had been plunged and even less, that of the political situation. The army had never given up power and seized it openly as soon as it was possible, for the promises which had been expressed through slogans could not be kept. The country was ravaged by war. In the countryside, the villages were destroyed and farm animals had been lost in fires, along with fields and forests. On the other hand, in the regions dominated by colonial settlers, such as the Mitidja plain, or the high plateaux of the south west controlled by wealthy Algerians, there was relatively little damage and life continued much as before. There was no equality between the various types of farmers – whether they were members of management committees, inhabitants of destroyed villages who now found themselves landless, wage labourers, or on farms taken over by the army. There were several occasions when optimism flourished, such as the Congress of agricultural workers (1964) or the women’s demonstration of 8 March 1965. However, these remained isolated and with no long term effect.

In Algeria, the immediate post-independence period in the 1960s and its subsequent impact right through to the end of the 1980s represented a watershed. It was characterized by a cosmopolitan ambiance and a widespread preoccupation with epistemology: concerning the difficulties of moving from the old to the new, linguistic transitions, negotiations around pedagogic questions and, above all else, the questioning of identity. Post-independent Algeria is striving to become visible as a symbolic territory, a nation and a nation state. Algerian literature has made a contribution to critical historical work by throwing light on problematic concepts such as colonization, revolution and independence. These concepts have been used by writers in their European sense, but, at the same time, they have been given new forms based on the experience lived from the inside by Algerians. The need for Algerianization was taken on board as both genealogical and pedagogical process. Tensions were exacerbated by the strong rivalry between a French version of universality inherited from the Enlightenment and the Islamic notion of universality, which sprang from a civilization that had reached its highest point in the medieval period but which intends to reconquer its world.

This article explores the transformations of the franc zone, a system of monetary cooperation between France and francophone Africa issued from the colonial era, from the decolonization to the end of the twentieth century. It seeks to explain the rationales that resulted in the preservation of this system, the most important being the turmoil in the international monetary system in the early 1970s. The transformation of the franc zone that took place in the 1970s was supposed to dedicate the monetary system to the funding of development, which was at the core of the political agenda at the time, as well as to reassign the monetary sovereignty to the African states. But in the 1980s the sovereign debt crisis led to an increasing control of the international institutions in charge of managing this crisis, while France gradually opted out. This evolution shows, in the long run, how the franc zone has become an international cooperation rather than a bilateral cooperation.

The repeal of l’indigénat in 1946 gave the Kanak all the rights associated with French citizenship. However, for many years afterwards, there was growing unrest that came to a head with les événements of the 1980s, when the proindependence groups clashed violently with government forces. This violence led to the signing, first, of the Matignon Accords in 1988 and the Noumea Accord in 1998. The Noumea Accord has set in motion the gradual and irreversible transfer of administrative powers to the colony under the supervision of the United Nations Decolonization Programme, culminating in a referendum (by 2018) to determine ultimate independence from France. It is critically important that the New Caledonians arrive at a functional model for such an arrangement and so, predictably, the practicalities involved have stimulated much discussion at all levels of society. Narratives are an important resource, allowing the reader to better understand cultural values and problems. Using ideas derived from critical discourse analysis, this article examines the emerging discussions in the literature written since the signing of the Accord, focusing in particular on a selection of works by Kanak authors.

The aim of this article is to locate the continuity and transformation of the ongoing relationship beyond the formal decolonization laid down in the ‘departmentalisation’ of 1946 in France. Observers were already talking of the ambiguities of development back in the 1960s in France, while the effects of departmentalization in economic terms were already being felt in the 1970s. This article aims to present a critical genealogy through the study of ‘emancipatory’ discourses since 1848 (the year of the second abolition of slavery by France), and, in particular, by analysing different political arrangements. It also puts forward an analysis based on class, gender and race of the ways in which the subjectification of contemporary politics takes place in La Réunion.

This article deals with the importance of the thinking of Frantz Fanon, as a theorist of the Algerian revolution and the wider national liberation movement worldwide. It highlights his radically different perspective on questions of race, nation and culture, founded on the basic premise of the alienation produced by colonialism and the ways in which it might be overcome, notably his notion of redemptive violence. It assesses his focus on the ‘wretched of the earth’ and the resonance that this had with many contemporary movements fighting against racism and colonial exploitation during the 1960s and 1970s. It ends with a look at his ongoing influence and continuing relevance today.