Reforming Empire, ending Empire: France and West Africa, 1944-1960

Si miramos de forma retrospectiva, tanto el fin de los imperios coloniales como el desarrollo de un mundo de estados-nación después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial parecen inevitables. Con todo, en la larga historia de los imperios, el año 1945 es una fecha demasiado temprana para marcar la transición del imperio al estado-nación. Hacerlo supondría dejar escapar los diversos modos en que los actores políticos imaginaron su futuro. En 1945 los líderes franceses no pensaban en su país como un estado-nación, sino que la nación francesa existía en el seno de un estado más complejo —el estado-imperio—. Algunos líderes pensaron que el imperio podía convertirse en otro tipo de “composite polity”, una federación que pasara a llamarse Unión Francesa. Los que habían sido súbditos pasarían a ser ciudadanos. En el África occidental francesa, la mayoría de los líderes no buscaban la independencia a finales de los años cuarenta, sino construir una Francia federal más igualitaria. Ambas versiones del federalismo implicaban visiones estratificadas de soberanía —que diferentes personas participasen de forma distinta para gobernarse tanto a sí mismos como al conjunto de la federaciónWith hindsight, the end of colonial empires and the development of a world of nation-states after World War II seems inevitable. Yet in the long history of empires, even 1945 is too early a date to mark a transition from empire to nationstate. To do so would be to miss the diverse ways in which political actors imagined their futures. In 1945 French leaders did not think of their country as a nation-state. The French nation existed within a more complex state —an empirestate. Some leaders thought empire could become another kind of composite polity, a federation to be renamed the French Union. Its one-time subjects would now be declared citizens. In French West Africa most leaders did not in the late 1940s seek independence, but rather to build a more egalitarian, federal France. Both versions of federalism entailed layered visions of sovereignty —that different peoples would participate in different ways in governing themselves and the federation as a whol

The limits of French intervention in Africa: a study in applied neo-colonialism

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 54INTRODUCTION: The scope of this paper is both wider and narrower than might be suggested by its title. It does not propose to offer a full analysis of French neocolonialism, but neither will it be limited to a mere inventory of overt French military actions of the type recently performed in Chad, Shaba or the Central African Republic. Part of the ambiguity that the title of the paper may occasion lies in the use of the term "intervention," which will be used to designate a wide-ranging sequence of policy actions leading, whether deliberately or not, to the crystallization of France's current posture in Africa.* In its broadest sense, "intervention" can, and probably should, include every form of concerted action (whether direct or indirect, overt or covert) by one international actor on another for the purpose of altering, in a manner favorable to the intervenor, the normal processes of operation in the targeted society. In this perspective, it would be legitimate to claim that intervention, or intrusion, by France or by other external powers in the affairs of Africa begins almost from the moment when they first established contact with African societies. The setting up of the slave trade itself was not intrinsically perceived as interventionist, inasmuch as slaves were at that time regarded by both sides as a legitimate trade commodity, but the supply of firearms to native intermediaries who were expected to use their newlyacquired technological superiority to pillage the hinterland in the forcible procurement of slaves, or the exploitation of rivalries between indigenous trading states were all forms of "intervention." Similarly, the imposition of direct colonial rule and the attendant (and forcible) introduction of new modes of production in African societies were clearly interventionist, as was the later development of a colonial apparatus, with its mobilizational and surplus-extracting effects.[TRUNCATED

Liquid Architecture 8 Sydney

Background Liquid Architecture, Australia's national festival of sound arts, made a successful Sydney debut in 2005, developing audiences for sound art through diverse, high quality programming. 2006 saw the challenge of growing the festival while maintaining quality and critical focus. Contribution In addition to previously included forms such as musique concrete and free improvisation, Liquid Architecture 7 Sydney expanded its policy of developing audiences through inclusivity by embracing sound poetry (Amanda Stewart), the contemporary classical world of New Music (composers Ros Bandt, Garth Paine and Michael Atherton) as well as new international connections, through the 'Swiss Australian Collectibles', an international project between Swiss composers and Melbourne musicians. The program of artist talks was also expanded to include panel discussions and instrument building workshops and masterclasses. Significance Tony Osborne, writing in RealTime, said that the festival "set up exciting juxtapositions and provoked plenty of interesting debate" which means that the festival achieved its curatorial goals, building on its previous success and continuing to attract and develop audiences with new work and opportunities to engage with sound in its many forms

The wrath of the Sibyl: Homeric reception and contested identities in the Sibylline Oracles 3

This chapter examines the culture of Homeric reception in the late Hellenistic period through the vehicle of one fascinating, important and under-considered text: the third Sibylline Oracle – a largely Jewish work which contains a fiery attack against Homer, where the Sibyl accuses him of lying about the Trojan war and stealing her verses and metre. After setting this passage in the wider context of local and cosmopolitan traditions concerning both the Sibyl and Homer’s constructed identities, I then use close reading to argue that the critique contained within the Sibyl’s anti-Homeric rant (much more sustained, erudite and witty than the scholarship has previously allowed) has much in common with both Hellenistic and imperial modes of Homeric response: it blends elements familiar from earlier Alexandrian exegesis and later Second Sophistic revisionism. Read in this way, the passage stands as a remarkable witness to the shared concerns and reading practices across different ‘periods’ (Hellenistic and imperial), genres (poetry and prose) and religious cultures (pagan and Jewish) during this pivotal time

Partis politiques et stratégies électorales à Parakou

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Guerra fría y no alineamiento: la política exterior de cuba en áfrica y las potencias occidentales (1959-1967)

Tesis Doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Departamento de Historia Contemporánea. Fecha de Lectura: 16-02-2024Tras la revolución de enero de 1959, las relaciones internacionales de Cuba dieron un nuevo giro. Para asegurar su supervivencia y protegerse de la política agresiva de Estados Unidos, se abrió internacionalmente a los países y movimientos antiimperialistas de todo el mundo. En el marco de esta nueva estrategia, forjó sólidas alianzas con países africanos y movimientos de liberación nacional que luchaban entonces contra la dominación colonial, neocolonial e imperialista. Su presencia en el continente supuso un obstáculo para las potencias occidentales que tenían allí intereses geoestratégicos. En esta tesis doctoral, analizamos la política exterior de Cuba en África en los años sesenta y la reacción de estas potencias en el contexto de la Guerra Fría y la emergencia del “Tercer Mundo” en los asuntos internacionales. Partimos del supuesto de que, en contra de lo que pudiera pensarse, las actuaciones de Cuba en África no estuvieron influidas por la URSS, sino que fueron el resultado de su propia política exterior y agenda internacional. De este modo, queremos contribuir a establecer una visión diferente de la Guerra Fría, que no esté centrada en la perspectiva de las grandes potencias, sino también desde el punto de vista de los países del Sur Global.After the January 1959 revolution, Cuba's international relations took a new turn. To ensure its survival and protect itself from the aggressive policy of the United States, it opened up internationally to anti-imperialist countries and movements around the world. As part of this new strategy, it forged strong alliances with African countries and national liberation movements then fighting against colonial, neo-colonial and imperialist domination. Its presence on the continent was an obstacle for the Western powers that had geostrategic interests there. In this doctoral thesis, we analyse Cuba's foreign policy in Africa in the 1960s and the reaction of these powers in the context of the Cold War and the emergence of the "Third World" in international affairs. We start from the assumption that, contrary to what might be thought, Cuba's actions in Africa were not influenced by the USSR, but were the result of its own foreign policy and international agenda. In this way, we want to contribute to establishing a different view of the Cold War, one that is not centred on the perspective of the great powers, but also from the point of view of the countries of the Global Sout