Book. The prince of ambivalence or the king of ambiguity, that is how the work may have been known as François Mitterrand, the final emperor. From colonization to Françafrique (Philippe Rey editions, 928 pages, 29.50 euros), a lot these characters come again in the case of describing the studies of the previous president (1981-1995) with Africa all through his life. This is what emerges from the studying of this biographical essay, the primary work of this type dedicated to it from the colonial angle and its imaginative and prescient of Africa.
A trajectory dissected since its youth commitments within the Thirties in favor of the Italian and fascist conquest of Ethiopia in 1935 after which in Vichy in the course of the first years of struggle till Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994, clearly passing via the Algerian struggle. So many ambivalences that the authors take care to place of their historic and political context.
A number of months in the past, one other check, by Thomas Deltombe (Africa first!ed. The discovery, 2024), had already twisted the neck on the fable of Mitterrand man on the left “necessarily anti -colonialist” by retracing his ministerial profession below the IVe Republic. Eleven instances Minister of 1947 till the takeover of General de Gaulle in 1958, this formidable had then detained there, particularly, the very uncovered portfolios of abroad France, from the inside (1954-1955) then of Keeper of the Seals (1956-1957) in the course of the wars of Indochina, Algeria in addition to in the course of the occasions of Tunisia and Morocco.
In favor of the Algerian War
The final emperor, A collective work written, by way of unpublished archives, by round forty contributors, specialists from the previous president, colonization or France-Africa relations introduced collectively below the route of historians Pascal Blanchard and Nicolas Bancel, clearly returns to this central interval within the political lifetime of François Mitterrand. Period throughout which he satisfied himself that he was higher to let go of Indochina to higher give attention to a redesign of colonial structure in Africa.
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