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How France lost Africa Reviewed Both Antoine Glaser and Stephen smith participated in writing this book. The first one is a professional journalist who has traveled through Africa for twenty five years and lived its social, economic and political battles. He got well acquainted with the black continent. He has written many books. He also worked for “liberation” and “Le Monde”. As for smith, he is one of those concerned with the African affairs and the director of “the continent' s Message” which is a special message that has interest in the African matters. The book contains about 280 pages of middle size paper. It has an introduction and three parts. The first part covers the French- African relations during the period from 1945 to 1989 the second part deals with the period from 1989 till the year 2001.the third part deals with the period that followed the eleventh of September 2001 events and their repercussions. The French African relations during the period between the two world wars: This period is considered, from the point of view of most political analysts, the true age of discovering Africa. It put the heresay of what is known as “the great France”. The most prominent features of this period is France' s giving up the policy of Assimilation and exchanging it for the policy of Association. This represents a turn in the French colonial history. This period witnessed the implementation of several great projects in Africa specially the infra- structure projects like road- building, rail ways, sea parts, airports, land reclamation.. etc.. Despite this, many writers spoke about what they called the invisible colonial face of France which disguises behind such “civilization mission” one of the aspects of this period also is the integration or the joining of the African youth in the French army even though this was done in many instances in a non voluntary form. This period also witnessed the beginnings of the African liberation movements and the calls for independence and the steps that France had taken to control such freedom movements, in the form of reform molds which did not stand for long in front of the African peoples' desire. The French- African relations during the period of the cold war: The period of the cold war started after the end of the second world war and what followed it like the beginning of laying the foundations of a new bipolar world order. This period was distinguished as the period that witnessed the beginning of confining the European influence in view of the rising of the American influence. this was accompanied by the increasing (tune) for the people's freedom. In spite of all this, that period was also characterized by the continuity of the French influence in Africa. During that period, France played the role of Africa's sentinel. It interfered in the African affairs largely whether directly through its military bases or through the intelligence acts and disguising behind the giant companies and projects to achieve the goals of the French policy in the continent. Africa also witnessed, during that period, the phenomenon of “the war in proxy”, as the African troops fought on behalf of the super powers. The most prominent example for this is the war in Angola and the ogadin war between Somalia and Ethiopia The collapse of Berlin wall and its African repercussions: The two authors see that this period which began in 1989 by the collapse of Berlin wall and ends by the terrorist attacks to which the united states was exposed on the eleventh of September 2001 they see that the collapse of Berlin wall led to the fall of the dictatorship terminated the stage of cold war and laid new foundations for the new world order which is based on the domination of one poler, specially because the Berlin war represented a symbol of an age full of ideological gambles for a bipolar system. The book indicates that the collapse of Berlin wall raised a wave of hope among he Africans who saw in this event “the second independence”. These feelings were embodied in the character of nelson Mandella who was released in February 1990. After the collapse of Berlin wall the French trends changed clearly as France mingled in the process of the European building at the price of its African trends and the Africans turned into persona non grata immigrants. France and departure from Africa: the book refers to what it called the departure of France from Africa, which began after the end of the cold war. The two authors say that such departure was done secretly though it was not a full departure. the proof for this is the decrease of the numbers of the French expatriates in Africa, the decrease of the numbers of civil cooperatives, the fall of the number of the number of the militaries or even the weakness of the French military existence in the continent. This is in addition to the decline in the level of the general French assistance to Africa and the decrease of the rates of trade exchange with the black continent: In short, France immigrated from Africa, thus following the tracks of the west who directed his utmost attention to his new borders in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Berlin wall at the cost of the European interest in Africa. Yet, it is worthy to note that France, while liquidating its presence in the Francophone Africa, did not desire to give up all its African positions entirely. The is a contrast that distinguished the transitional period between the end of competition between the East and the west by the collapse of Berlin wall in 1989 and the eleventh of September 2001events, as France adopted the principle of “non- intervention and non- indifference” Conclusion: The authors see that France lost Africa on the eve of 6-7 November 2oo4 when the French Helicopters shot files on the demonstrators who were the supporters of President Gabajebu to prevent their arrival to the camps of the French troops. France lost Africa when it refrained from applying the joint defence accords signed between the two countries and which imposes on Paris the intervension to help the Ivory coast if it is exposed to an external aggression. France confined to half solutions and its role was also confined to offering some logistic assistance to the Ivory army. This led to lose confidence between the two sides. The authors sees that the idea of France Africa had ended. The crisis in Cote d' Ivoir was almost the last nail in the coffin of the French presence in sub saharan Africa Such crisis reflected the French hesitation and inability to adapt with the new African reality and the changes which the world had witnessed. In fact France did not lose Africa because of its mismanagement of the crisis in cote d' lvoir,. But this happened as a result of many political and historical accumulations in which the previous colonial power in Francophonic Africa fell in a series of mistakes. Some of these mistakes are due to a fault in the politics or the uncertainty of the trends, and some of them are attributed to the insufficient assessment for the universal changes which the world saw. Moreover, the last decades of the twentieth century showed actually the confusion bewilderment and hesitation from the part of Paris in dealing with the African continent to the extent that such policy ranged from going to and for and was distinguished in several occasions by unclear vision. France committed many fatal errors in Africa through involvement with the dictator rulers in the continent and the indifference with the African peoples. Its responsibility for the genocide war in Rwanda appeared, besides the scandals of its companies specially ELF and its intelligence apparatus in the continent and when it interfered in Angola in the scandal of what is known by “Angola gate”. Finally when it interfered in cote d'ivoire and was involved in fighting with the ivory nationals whatever their political or tribal belongings were and whatever the motives were, as the matter was connected with a bad picture represented by the French army or the French force killing the black African. Here, all feel that there was an age which ended so that a new age may start, and that there was a Page which was turned over in the history of the French African relations.
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