Paper short abstract:

The paper asks: what does it mean to study French-African relations from below, from the standpoint of rumours and or conspiracy theories?

Paper long abstract:

Franco-African relations have long been inscribed in opacity and a permanent state of suspicion of France’s entanglement with her former colonies in Africa. Under such circumstances conspiracy theories and rumours have also been crucial to ‘the interpretation of events’ and processes that define Franco-African relations. While Achille Mbembe has recently remarked that we ‘cannot make history based on suspicion,’ this paper enquires into the value of suspicion in illuminating the field of Franco-African relations in a postcolonial, post-Cold War moment. The paper asks: what does it mean to study French-African relations from below, from the standpoint of rumours and or conspiracy theories? In other words, what is the epistemological value of examining French-African relations in terms of the role of rumours and conspiracy theories in elaborating popular ‘regimes of truth’ that compete with official narratives and truth-claims from both African leaders and French authorities? Moreover, how does focusing on rumours and conspiracy theories in Franco-African relations illuminate some of the strategies of cultural diplomacy that France has adopted in her efforts to engage and “rehabilitate” her image in Africa? This paper will draw mainly, if not only, on observations from Cameroon to address these questions. It argues that rumours and conspiracy theories are a significant force not only in the re-interpretations and critiques of Franco-African relations from below, but also in re-configuring some of the official modes of cultural and political engagements that France has adopted towards Francophone Africa.