Paper long abstract:

Since the creation of the Frolinat in 1966, the first post-independence rebel group in Chad, the country has been among those, which have been most affected by political and armed conflict in francophone Africa. The former colonial power France has been involved in these tensions both directly and indirectly. The most prominent examples for this are the repeated interventions of the French in Chad as well as a number of French military agreements to support governments in Chad. This has created a backlash against France among the Chadian population. The anti-French criticism, led mainly by young people and instrumentalised by political, economic and sometimes military elites, has remained dominated by a militant and emotional criticism, while there are only very few critical academic studies, which analyse this complex relation.

In this paper, I intend to explore these debates by focusing on the question of how Chadian political actors have instrumentalized France for their own interests. The aim is to understand the role and place of France in Chad through the prism of demand and supply in the context of political and military strategies of Chadian elites. I consider the wars of the Frolinat against the regime of President Tombalbaye, the divisions within the Frolinat, the regime of François Tombalbaye’s Cultural Revolution and the role of President Deby, characterized by some observers as “France's policeman” in Africa. Methodologically, I rely mainly on interviews with former political leaders in Chad, the writings of historians and critical reading of the press.