Al Jazeera French African Connection Miniseries

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Al Jazeera, Francafrique, Francophone Africa, Gabon, historical fantasies, The French African connection

Although I lived in Francophone Africa for two years, my French is rather limited and covering African affairs through the prism of DC also reduces my ability to focus on Francophone countries.  So, as DC Africanist events are rather light for the moment, I thought I’d share this link (complete with a full first episode) to an interesting miniseries on ‘The French African Connection’ of which I caught Episode 1 on Al Jazeera yesterday.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201387113131914906.html

The extreme focus on Gabon seems a bit strange (although unique) and the decolonization process is explained in roughly 10 seconds, but the archival footage is fascinating and the first episode is extremely hard-hitting, almost polemical, which brings forth a refreshing tone.

In light of recent French actions in Mali and the Ivory Coast, it seems to me that Francafrique has proven to be very resilient.  While watching the film I found myself indulging in two historical ‘what if’ questions (this is probably something particular to history majors).

1.  What if France had been the colonial power of a major sub-Saharan nation like Nigeria, the Congo, or South Africa?

2.  What if France had not colonized Algeria, or other North African countries?  Would all those French immigrants who settled there have gone to Senegal or Ivory Coast instead?

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Francophone Supreme Court Justices in DC

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African Supreme Courts, Francophone Africa, Wendy Sherman

Not being affiliated with a major think tank or the African affairs bureau of the State Department, there are a lot of things going on pertaining to Africa in DC that I don’t know much about and wish that I did.  An illustrative example:

The State Department’s Public Schedule often offers interesting (although incomplete) insights on what is going on.  One event that I noticed yesterday is a meeting of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, with “ten Francophone African Supreme Court Justices.”

The Schedule offers no more info than that, but I find this to be a very interesting meeting.  I am particularly curious as to what countries may be in the mix and what brought the individuals here.

Could the Central African Republic and Mali, countries which have been grabbing headlines lately, be among the justices represented?