Academic literature on the topic 'Colonies – Afrique'

It was not Dutch settlers nor British colonizers who introduced public and community health practice in north-eastern South Africa but medical doctors of the Swiss mission in southern Africa. While the history of medical knowledge transfer into 19th–20th century Africa emphasises colonial powers, this paper shows how countries without colonies contributed to expand western medical cultures, including public health. The Swiss took advantage of the local authorities’ negligence, and implemented their own model of medicalization of African societies, understood as the way of improving health standards. They moved from a tolerated hospital-centred medicine to the practice of community health, which was uncommon at the time. Elim hospital’s physicians moved back boundaries of segregationist policies, and sometime gave the impression of being involved in the political struggle against Apartheid. Thus, Swiss public health activities could later be seen as sorts of seeds that were planted and would partly reappear in 1994 with the ANC-projected national health policy.

RésuméLe traitement de la nature dans les colonies de peuplement prend en Afrique du Sud une dimension particulière. La gestion de la nature y fut remarquablement instrumentalisée dans le cadre d’une ingénierie territoriale de la ségrégation coloniale, puis de l’apartheid, au point d’être l’une des pièces maîtresses des dispositifs territoriaux et de l’idéologie qui les sous-tendait. Dans la nouvelle Afrique du Sud, elle constitue l’un des terrains privilégiés du raccommodage socio-spatial, et ceci à trois niveaux. Au niveau local, avec le développement de formes participatives communautaires de gestion et d’appropriation qui ne vont pas sans poser de problème avec une municipalisation qui privilégie la démocratie représentative ; au niveau national, avec un certain consensus autour de la promotion et la restauration d’un patrimoine naturel autochtone d’où l’on doit extirper les plantes allochtones ; et au niveau international, avec la transformation des parcs frontaliers en des objets internationaux de développement, les transfrontier peace parks.

Abstract This article focuses on the militarization of social life and leisure in Brazzaville during the Second World War and argues that efforts to instill a sense of control over the city could only suppress life so much, as many Congolese people were unwilling to completely succumb to the will of the administration in a war that seemed to offer very little to their communities or their city as a whole. Furthermore, drinking and dancing served as opportunities to engage with issues of class and race in the wartime capital of Afrique Française Libre. The history of alcohol consumption in Brazzaville is not simply the story of choosing whether or not to drink (or allow others to drink); rather, it is one of many stories of colonial control, exploitation, and racism that plagued Europe’s colonies in Africa during the Second World War.

Abstract This article examines how French revolutionaries envisioned a republican imperial future in Africa between the decreed abolition of slavery and its restoration under Napoléon. Drawing on proposals within the Ministry of the Marine and the Colonies and analyzing French activities in the Senegambian holdings of Saint-Louis and Gorée, the author argues that, although the French Revolution included numerous creative imperial processes vis-à-vis Africa, they did not amount to an imperial revolution in their own right. Cet article étudie la manière dont les révolutionnaires français envisageaient un avenir impérial et républicain en Afrique entre le décret d'abolition de l'esclavage du 4 février 1794 et sa restauration sous Napoléon. S'appuyant sur des archives manuscrites du ministère de la Marine et des Colonies et analysant les activités françaises à Saint-Louis et Gorée, il démontre que, bien que la Révolution française ait été synonyme de processus impériaux novateurs vis-à-vis de l'Afrique, ces derniers ne constituaient pas pour autant une véritable révolution impériale.

Prior to the Second World War, the French government had been highhanded in its administration of the Levantine Mandates and severe in the treatment of Levantine immigrants in its West African colonies. This imperious behaviour would change abruptly in 1944. As part of their effort to rebuild French power, General Charles de Gaulle and the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationak (CFLN) sought to maintain France's longstanding position of diplomatic and cultural influence in the Levant, even after promising Lebanese and Syrian independence. With this in mind, French authorities grew more sensitive to the immigrant connection between Damascus and Dakar. In particular, the CFLN began to understand that complaints by Levantine immigrants in Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF) regarding their treatment by colonial officials had immediate repercussions on the French ‘mission’ in Syria and Lebanon. As a result, in the last year of the war – and at the direct instigation of the CFLN's representative in the Levant – sweeping policy changes were instituted to mitigate the treatment of Levantine immigrants in West Africa in order to restore France's prestige and position in the Middle East.

The historical memory of the French about the collapse of the French colonial empire is controversial and situational. The apologetic version of historical memory interprets French colonialism as the civilizational mission of France on the Black Continent. This version is based on mythologemes formulated by C. de Gaulle and his associates J. Foccart, F. Houphouët-Boigny and others. This is the approach to the historical past that informs the official historical narrative and memorial policy of the Fifth Republic. To a degree, all the presidents of the French Republic from J. Chirac to E. Macron remain faithful to it. This “patriotic version” of the national history provides the ideological foundation for Champs Elysee’s policies toward African nations. These policies, collectively known as “France-Afrique”, represent a latent mechanism for preserving economic and political dependence of the Tropical Africa’s nations on their former colonial master. An alternative version of historical memory interprets colonialism as a crime against humanity, and the African policy of the Champs Elysees as a special form of neocolonialism, designed to promote France's political and economic preferences in the countries that were formerly its colonies. This intellectual tradition is cultivated in the work of F.-X. Verschave and other researchers, members of the non-governmental organization “Survie”.

Abstract In 1915 troops of the South African Union Defence Force invaded German South West Africa, present day Namibia. In the north of the territory the South African forces captured an African soldier serving in the German army named Mbadamassi. Upon his capture Mbadamassi demanded to be released and claimed that he was a British national from Nigeria. In addition, he stated that he had served in the West African Frontier Force, and that he had been shanghaied into German military service in Cameroon. Furthermore, whilst serving in the German army in Cameroon, Mbadamassi claimed that he had participated in a mutiny, and that, as a consequence, he had been deported to GSWA. The article covers the remarkable military career of the African soldier, Mbadamassi, who between 1903 and 1917 served both the King of the British Empire as well as the Kaiser of the German Empire. In so doing, the article sheds light on the career of an individual African soldier serving in three colonial armies; the West African Frontier Force, the Schutztruppe in Cameroon, and the Schutztruppe in GSWA. The article argues that beyond the fact that colonial armies were institutions of repression, they also provided opportunity for those willing or condemned to serve within their ranks. Furthermore the article provides some indication as to the extent of communication that existed between colonial subjects in the separate colonies of Africa at the time. En 1915, les troupes de l'Union de l'Afrique du Sud ont envahi l'Afrique du Sud-Ouest allemande, l'actuelle Namibie. Dans le Nord du territoire, les forces sud-africaines ont capturé un soldat africain servant dans l'armée allemande nommé Mbadamassi. Celui-ci exigea d'être libéré et revendiqua être un Britannique du Nigeria. De plus, il déclara avoir servi dans la West African Frontier Force et avoir été enrôlé de force dans l'armée allemande au Cameroun. En outre, pendant qu'il servait dans l'armée allemande au Cameroun, Mbadamassi a prétendu avoir pris part à une mutinerie, ce qui avait conduit à sa déportation vers l'Afrique du Sud-Ouest allemande. Cet article couvre la remarquable carrière militaire du soldat africain Mbadamassi, qui, entre 1903 et 1917, a servi à la fois le roi de l'empire britannique et le Kaiser de l'empire allemand. Ainsi, l'article éclaire sur la carrière individuelle d'un soldat africain servant dans trois armées coloniales; la West African Frontier Force, le Schutztruppe au Cameroun et le Schutztruppe en Afrique du Sud-Ouest allemande. L'article soutient qu'au-delà du fait que les armées coloniales étaient des institutions de répression, elles ont aussi offert la possibilité à ceux qui le voulaient ou ceux qui y étaient condamnés de servir dans leurs rangs. En outre, l'article fournit une indication sur l'étendue de la communication qui a existé entre les sujets coloniaux dans les colonies d'Afrique séparées de l'époque.