Book. The prince of ambivalence or the king of ambiguity, this is how the work could have been called François Mitterrand, the last emperor. From colonization to Françafrique (Philippe Rey editions, 928 pages, 29.50 euros), so much these characters come back when it comes to describing the reports of the former president (1981-1995) with Africa throughout his life. This is what emerges from the reading of this biographical essay, the first work of this kind devoted to it from the colonial angle and its vision of Africa.
A trajectory dissected since its youth commitments in the 1930s in favor of the Italian and fascist conquest of Ethiopia in 1935 and then in Vichy during the first years of war until Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994, obviously passing through the Algerian war. So many ambivalences that the authors take care to put in their historical and political context.
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A few months ago, another test, by Thomas Deltombe (Africa first!ed. The discovery, 2024), had already twisted the neck at the myth of Mitterrand man on the left “necessarily anti -colonialist” by retracing his ministerial career under the IVe Republic. Eleven times Minister of 1947 until the takeover of General de Gaulle in 1958, this ambitious had then detained there, in particular, the very exposed portfolios of overseas France, from the interior (1954-1955) then of Keeper of the Seals (1956-1957) during the wars of Indochina, Algeria as well as during the events of Tunisia and Morocco.
In favor of the Algerian War
The last emperor, A collective work written, in terms of unpublished archives, by around forty contributors, specialists from the former president, colonization or France-Africa relations brought together under the direction of historians Pascal Blanchard and Nicolas Bancel, obviously returns to this central period in the political life of François Mitterrand. Period during which he convinced himself that he was better to let go of Indochina to better focus on a redesign of colonial architecture in Africa.
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