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The 20th Century m'zuŋ u Scramble for Independent Africa
"Veni, Vidi, Vici ",Steti - ego adduxit inimici mei"

Germany, the Netherlands and Luxemburg were rather sceptical. Western Germany,
however, traded an improvement of its own political standing - after tough negotiations

between Adenauer and de Gaulle - with the French colonial attempts and agreed to
provide substantially to the European Development Fund."

"Eurafrica" 136
Wikipedia
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FrancAfrique
“ In international relations, Françafrique is France's sphere of influence (or pré carré in
French, meaning backyard) over former French and Belgian colonies in sub-Saharan

Africa. The term was derived from the expression France-Afrique, which was used by the
first president of Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, in 1955 to describe his country's

close ties with France. It was later renamed Françafrique by François-Xavier Verschave in
1998 to criticise the alleged corrupt and clandestine activities of various Franco-African

political, economic and military networks.

***
Following the accession to independence of its African colonies beginning in 1959,
France continued to maintain a sphere of influence over the new countries, which was
critical to then President Charles de Gaulle's vision of France as a global power (or

grandeur in French) and as a bulwark to British and American influence in a post-colonial
world. The United States supported France's continuing presence in Africa to prevent the

region from falling under Soviet influence during the Cold War. France kept close political,
economic, military and cultural ties with its former African colonies that were multi-
layered, involving institutional, semi-institutional and informal levels.

***
Françafrique has been characterised by several features that emerged during the Cold
War, the first of which was the African cell, a group that comprised the French President
and his close advisors who made policy decisions on Africa, often in close collaboration

with powerful business networks and the French secret service. Another feature was the
franc zone, a currency union that pegged the currencies of most francophone African

countries to the French franc. Françafrique was also based, in large part, on the concept
of coopération, which was implemented through a series of cooperation accords that
allowed France to establish close political, economic, military, and cultural ties with its

former African colonies. France also saw itself as a guarantor of stability in the region
and therefore adopted an interventionist policy in Africa, resulting in military