Reframing imperialism: France, West Africa and colonial culture in the era of decolonization, 1944--1968

This dissertation argues that the last years of colonial rule in French West Africa were marked by a renewed vigor in the imperial apparatus, not by its dismantling. I demonstrate the contested terrain of this reinvented Empire by analyzing a series of overlooked cultural-political projects initiated and debated by the French colonial administration as well as various actors in France and AOF after the Second World War. While colonial rule may have officially ended in 1960, the new imperial frame produced by these endeavors continued to shape the relationship between France and its former colony well into the period of independence.;Refraining imperialism entailed a reevaluation of colonial theory as well as practice. Historically, the official "civilizing mission" aimed at making non-French people culturally French. However, this kind of cultural engineering could not be accomplished without undermining the premise of colonial rule; Africans could not be made French because then they would no longer require civilizing. During the 1950s and 1960s both French colonial administrators and Africans re-evaluated the binaries of colonial rule---constantly challenging and re-making the porous borders between "French" and "African," "Modern" and "Traditional" and "Familiar" and "Strange." The process of negotiation produced a specific culture of colonialism and contributed to the theoretical structure of West African nationalism in this period.;Chapter One investigates the most literal attempt at "reframing" the French Empire: the ideology of Eurafrica, which sought to merge the African and European continents into a new consensual union. The second chapter examines attempts to re-design Dakar, AOF's capital, in the wake of World War II as well as deliberations over the extent of French and African influence on the city's environment. Chapter Three looks at the politics of cinema censorship in AOF and how African abilities to make sense of film confounded French expectations. The fourth chapter focuses upon the assessment of colonial questions in French and African film and ethnographic work. Finally, the dissertation turns to the French creation of higher education programs for African students in metropole and colony and the response of student movements in Paris and Dakar.