French Interests in the Levant and Their Impact on French Immigrant Policy in West Africa

Itinerario ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-32
Author(s):  
Chris Bierwirth
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Cultural Influence ◽  
Second World War ◽  
West African ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
World War ◽  
Charles De Gaulle ◽  
Immigrant Policy ◽  
Second World ◽  
De Gaulle

Prior to the Second World War, the French government had been highhanded in its administration of the Levantine Mandates and severe in the treatment of Levantine immigrants in its West African colonies. This imperious behaviour would change abruptly in 1944. As part of their effort to rebuild French power, General Charles de Gaulle and the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationak (CFLN) sought to maintain France's longstanding position of diplomatic and cultural influence in the Levant, even after promising Lebanese and Syrian independence. With this in mind, French authorities grew more sensitive to the immigrant connection between Damascus and Dakar. In particular, the CFLN began to understand that complaints by Levantine immigrants in Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF) regarding their treatment by colonial officials had immediate repercussions on the French ‘mission’ in Syria and Lebanon. As a result, in the last year of the war – and at the direct instigation of the CFLN's representative in the Levant – sweeping policy changes were instituted to mitigate the treatment of Levantine immigrants in West Africa in order to restore France's prestige and position in the Middle East.

Conclusion

1999 ◽  
pp. 231-232
Author(s):  
Diane Frost
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Second World War ◽  
West African ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
The Face ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The Kru communities of Freetown and Liverpool emerged in response to, and as a consequence of, British maritime interests. Kru were actively encouraged to leave their Liberian homeland and migrate to Freetown, where they came to constitute an important part of its maritime trade. The Kru formed a significant nucleus of Freetown’s seafarers, as well as the majority of ships’ labourers or ‘Krooboys’ that were recruited to work the West African coast. The occupational niche that the Kru eventually came to occupy in Britain’s colonial trade with West Africa had important social repercussions. The Kru were labelled as unusually competent maritime workers by shipowners and colonial administrators, and the Kru encouraged this label for obvious expedient reasons. The gradual build-up of the Kru’s dominance in shipping during the nineteenth century and until the Second World War contrasts sharply with their position in the post-war period. The breaking down of their occupational niche due to circumstances beyond their control had direct social consequences on the nature of their community. Whilst many Kru clubs and societies depended on seafaring for their very existence, the demise of shipping undermined such societies’ ability to survive in the face of increasing unemployment and poverty....

scholarly journals A Szabad Francia Légierő tevékenysége Afrikában

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-3.) ◽  
pp. 117-136
Author(s):  
Krisztián Bene
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Charles De Gaulle ◽  
Equatorial Africa ◽  
Second World ◽  
Political Scene ◽  
De Gaulle

The Free French Air Forces were the air branch of the Free French Forces during the Second World War from 1940 to 1943 when they finally became part of the new regular French Air Forces. This study aims to present the activity of this special and little-known air force over the territory of Africa during this period.After the French defeat in June 1940 General Charles de Gaulle went to England to continue the fight against the Axis Forces and created the Free French Forces. Several airmen of the French Air Forces rallied to General de Gaulle which allowed the creation of the Free French Forces on 1st July 1940 under the command of Admiral Émile Muselier. The Free French commandment wanted to deploy their units during the reconquest of the French African colonies, so they were sent to participate in the occupation of French Equatorial Africa in 1940. Other flying units struggled in East and North Africa together with British troops against the invading Italian armies. These forces were reorganized in 1941 and continued the fight in the frame of fighter and bombing squadrons (groupes in French). Most of them (five of seven) were created and deployed in Africa as the Lorraine, the Alsace, the Bretagne, the Artois and the Picardie squadrons.From 1940 to 1943 5,000 men served in the ranks of the Free French Air Forces, which is a modest number if we compare with the power of the air forces of the other allied countries. At the same time, the presence and the activity of these forces were an important aid to Great Britain during a hard period of its history, so this contribution was appreciated by the British government in the end of the war at the political scene.

The Second World War

2000 ◽  
pp. 255-272
Author(s):  
Peter N. Davies
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Second World War ◽  
West African ◽  
Shipping Industry ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Second World

This chapter discusses the effects of the Second World War on the British shipping industry. It provides an analysis of the loss of seamen and vessels in comparison to the previous world war, and describes the subsequent trading conditions of West Africa. It also presents the establishment of the West African Co-Ordination Committee, formed by Elder Dempster, John Holt and the United Africa Company and comments on their actions made on behalf of the Ministry of War Transport in 1940.

scholarly journals From Gaullism to Anti-Gaullism: Denis Saurat and the French Cultural Institute in Wartime London

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Faucher
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Charles De Gaulle ◽  
The World ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Second World ◽  
De Gaulle

This article explores the case of the French cultural institute in London which found itself at the nexus of Gaullist as well as anti-Gaullist networks during the Second World War. By analysing the support that the institute’s director, Denis Saurat, brought to Charles de Gaulle in the early days of Free France, the article contributes to our understanding of the formation of Free French political thought. This study analyses Saurat’s shifting position in the movement, from being Gaullist to becoming an active partisan of anti-Gaullism. The examination of Saurat’s networks and politics helps to re-appraise further trends of anti-Gaullism caused by leftist views not least regarding the lack of democratic principles that characterized Free France in 1940–2. Finally, Saurat’s anti-Gaullism was also prompted by his refusal to put the French cultural institute in London at the service of de Gaulle and support Free French propagandist, cultural and academic ambitions in the world. Overall this article argues for a reassessment of London-based leftist anti-Gaullism understood not just through issues of personalities and democracy but also through the prism of cultural diplomacy and propaganda.

War Tourism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertram M. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
French Economy ◽  
War Narratives ◽  
The Press ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Second World ◽  
De Gaulle

Second World War tourism in France includes two main components: tourism by the Germans and French during the war and memory tourism to war sites thereafter. Contrary to what is often assumed, tourism in France did not stop with the war. Thousands of German military personnel were given tours in occupied France and French civilians continued to take vacations as well. Many turned out with tourist gazes to watch General de Gaulle march down the Champs-Élysées at the time of the Liberation and sites frequently acquired new significance as in Normandy where Arromanches changed from a spa village to a war tourist destination. Based on French and German archival materials, memoirs, films, the press, and personal interviews, this book addresses the conflicts and competition between the 19th and early 20th century French tourism narratives and the German-dominated tourism version of the Second World War that replaced it, followed by the Gaullist/Resistance accounts after 1944. Although the Germans hardly treated the French kindly during the war, France was not relegated to the position of occupied Poland. Paris was spared the fate of Warsaw during the war. Postwar memory tourists brought home memories of Normandy and other sites that informed their own understandings of war. Narratives changed but war tourism remains a significant contributor to the French economy.

Post-War Reconstruction

2000 ◽  
pp. 273-296
Author(s):  
Peter N. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
West African ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Freight Rates ◽  
Company Limited ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World ◽  
Trade Market

This chapter describes the reconstruction of Elder Dempster’s company structure and development after the Second World War. It states the company’s losses in terms of vessels and staff, and assesses the changes made in management and head office accommodation in order to allow Elder Dempster to meet the level of success it had achieved in the early 20th Century. The chapter also addresses the changing composition of the West African trade after the war, which included alterations in the determination of freight rates; the extension of the West African Lines Conference; and the intrusion of Scandinavian lines into the West African trade market. The chapter concludes with Elder Dempster’s purchase of the British and Burmese Steam Navigation Company Limited.

Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund, 1940–1947: “The Responsibility of the Nigerian Government to Provide Funds for the Welfare of Its Soldiers”

Itinerario ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 516-542
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Nwafor Mordi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
Nigerian Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World

AbstractThis study seeks to make an original contribution to the historiography of Africa and the Second World War. It examines the efforts of the Nigerian government and the British Army towards the welfare and comforts of Nigerian soldiers during their overseas services from 1940 to 1947. Their deployments in East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia had brought the issue of their morale maintenance, namely comforts and welfare, to the fore. Extant Nigerian studies of the Second World War have been concerned with Nigerian contributions to Allied victory in terms of diverse economic exertions and those guided by charity towards Europeans affected by the German blitzkrieg, particularly in Britain. Consequently, this paper explains the genesis, objectives, and policy directions of the Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund and its impact on Nigerian servicemen's comforts and welfare. The study posits the argument that constant disagreements and indeed struggles for supremacy between the military and the civil power adversely affected troops’ comforts and welfare. Delayed postwar repatriation of the idle and bored troops to West Africa, in breach of openly proclaimed wartime promises, bred anxiety and made them prone to mutiny. The end of demobilisation in 1947 left many disgruntled ex-servicemen applying for reenlistment.

The New Ju-Ju: Ijo Masquerades and the Office of War Information in Second World War Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200942091471
Author(s):  
Caroline Angle
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Second World War ◽  
West African ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Spiritual Power ◽  
World War ◽  
Model Aircraft ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Second World ◽  
Insight Into

In May and June 1943, a photographer with the American Office of War Information (OWI) photographed West African men who he identified as ‘witch doctors’ engaging in masquerade dances dedicated to water spirits. However, rather than the typical aquatic-themed headgear, these ‘witch doctors’ wore model planes – reproductions of British, French, and American aircraft. The photographs and their captions constructed a narrative of a ‘new ju-ju’, in which an indigenous community incorporated model aircraft into their traditional masquerades in order to reflect upon and support the power of Allied armies, which had supplanted their previous notions of spiritual power. However, despite their absurd and over-contrived captions, these photos were never published, demonstrating that the narrative of ‘new ju-ju’ was too complex to fit within the standard propagandistic narrative of widespread Allied support. This fascinating story provides insight into how indigenous communities in Nigeria coped with massive societal changes throughout the Second World War period, reveals the constructed narratives of American wartime propaganda, and, overall, demonstrates the uncontrollable nature of photographs as sources that insist upon revealing distinctive forms of agency and telling their own stories.

The Reorganisation of the Company

2000 ◽  
pp. 229-254
Author(s):  
Peter N. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
West African ◽  
World War ◽  
Commercial Aviation ◽  
A Company ◽  
Second World ◽  
Successes And Failures

This chapter documents the establishment of Elder Dempster Lines Limited, a company under the control of Richard Holt, and follows the fluctuations in West African imports and exports in the 1930s. It examines the successes and failures of Elder Dempster in this period by assessing shipping tonnage and financial results, and comparing the data to the growth of rival lines. The chapter concludes with an introduction of Elder Dempster’s entry into commercial aviation as Elders Colonial Airways Limited, a venture that came to an end in the 1940s due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

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