Answers: France's Colonial Legacy

Earlier this month, Senegal commemorated the 80th anniversary of a massacre of West African soldiers who fought for France during World War II by French forces in Thiaroye near the capital Dakar. On December 1, 1944, the West African soldiers were gunned down after demanding wages owed to them and equal treatment with French soldiers. This comes as France is rapidly losing influence in its former colonies in Africa as more countries demand the departure of its troops. Paris is also facing increasing questions over acknowledging and apologising for the atrocities of its colonial past. This quiz explores the lasting impact of the French colonial era in independent nations as well as French overseas departments.

Answers

1) Which country, a key military ally of France in Africa, announced it was ending its defence cooperation agreement with Paris this November?

Chad. More here, here, here and here. My earlier quiz on Chad below details how the country has been crucial to France’s military strategy in West Africa and the Sahel.

December 31, 2024 update: The Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara announced that French forces stationed there would withdraw. Back in 2011, French troops had played a key role in unseating Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to concede despite losing in the election to Ouattara.

2) Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have all successfully demanded the withdrawal of French troops following military coups, with Russia gaining influence in all three. But it was another former French colony in Africa, where Russian forces and Wagner group mercenaries were first deployed in 2018 to support the government against rebels. Once closely linked to France, this country is now widely seen as Russia’s biggest stronghold in Africa. Which country?

Central African Republic. More here, here, here, here and here. More on the Wagner group and its late founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in my earlier quiz here.

The most notorious phase of France’s cosy ties with the leadership in the Central African Republic was the dictatorship of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who crowned himself emperor in the style of Napoleon. More here, here, here, here and here. The French eventually orchestrated his removal in 1979.

3) France conducted its first nuclear test in the oasis town of Reggane in 1960. Reggane is part of which country?

Algeria. France continued to conduct nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara until 1966 under an exemption in the Evian Accords of 1962 that led to Algeria’s independence. More here and here.

4) From 1966 until 1996, France conducted nearly two hundred nuclear explosions in the atmosphere and underground at which island chain? During an official visit in 2021, President Emmanuel Macron said “the nation owes a debt” to the region.

French Polynesia. The toxic legacy of the nuclear tests was revisited this year at the time of the Paris Olympics. The surfing competition took place in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, which was exposed to high radiation levels.

You can read the answers to my quiz on the Paris Olympics here.

5) May 8, 1945 is known as VE Day or 'Victory in Europe’ Day marking Nazi Germany’s formal surrender. General de Gaulle officially announced the end of the Second World War to the French public that day. But elsewhere on the same day, French colonial forces responded to a demonstration by carrying out mass killings. Which country?

Algeria. The killings at Guelma, Sétif and Kherrata were a turning point in Algeria’s struggle for independence from France. More here.

6) This country secured independence from France in 1804. In 1825, France imposed an indemnity of 150 million francs in exchange for recognising this country’s independence. France said this was to compensate former landowners and slaveholders and threatened military action. The country was forced to rely on loans from French banks to raise funds, making it a double debt. This was fully paid off only by 1947. Which country?

Haiti. More about the long-running instability in the world’s first Black-red republic in my earlier quiz below.

7) This overseas department of France is best known for its space launch site. The centre was established there because of its proximity to the equator. The space industry is key to the region’s economy. Where?

French Guiana, a slice of France in mainland South America. French Guiana was a launch site for Russia’s Soyuz from 2011 until 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and the European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow. India has been launching satellites from French Guiana since the early 1980s.

8) This island is part of the overseas department in the previous question. It was used as a penal colony until the 1950s. Captain Alfred Dreyfus was imprisoned there after being wrongfully convicted of treason. A book that details the author’s purported incarceration and escape from the island became a bestseller in 1969 (and a subsequent film starring Steve McQueen). Name the island and the book/film.

Devil’s Island. The book is Papillon by Henri Charriere.

Courtesy Google Maps: Devil’s Island is highlighted in red. Brazil is to the south of French Guiana. Brazil has attempted to leverage its proximity to the equator with a space launch site at Alcantara in its north-east only to face multiple setbacks. The current government is trying to boost the space industry.

9) Moving to a Pacific island that was used as a penal colony by France. Violent protests took place this year as France’s National Assembly and Senate approved a bill that gave voting rights in local polls to recent settlers from the mainland. President Macron suspended the plan. Which island?

New Caledonia

Courtesy Google Maps: New Caledonia is located east of Australia, north of New Zealand and west of Fiji.

10) A version of this phrase was coined in 1955 by Felix Houphouet-Boigny, independent Ivory Coast’s first President from 1960 until his death in 1993. The Francophile leader was referring to the political and economic ties between France and its colonies. In 1998 the French journalist and intellectual François-Xavier Verschave reworked the phrase, defining it to represent France’s cosy and shadowy economic, political and military ties with a corrupt elite in its former African colonies. What is the phrase?

Francafrique. More here, here and here.

11) What was created in December 1945 when the French government ratified the Bretton Woods Agreement? It is now facing a backlash in Africa. West African nations plan to change its name to ‘eco’.

The CFA franc currency More here and here.

The quiz I posted after the recent spate of coups in West Africa is below.

12) Between the 1960s and the 1980s more than 2,000 children were taken from an Indian Ocean island controlled by France and resettled in the mainland in an official scheme to boost the rural population. At the time it was seen as a solution to overpopulation and poverty on the island. The children never saw their biological parents again. In 2014, France’s Parliament formally recognised the state’s ‘moral responsibility’. Which island?

Reunion

Courtesy Google Maps: Reunion is located east of Madagascar and southwest of Mauritius. You can see another French territory, Mayotte, to the west of Madagascar.

13) Four islands that made up an archipelago on the Indian Ocean held individual referendums on independence from France in 1974. While three of the islands voted for independence, one chose to stay with France. The three islands that opted for independence became a new nation. Undocumented migrants from this country have sparked anger in the island that is still part of France. There’s been a crackdown on migrants this year amid anti-migrant protests in an island that’s the poorest department of France. Name the country where the migrants are from and the French island?

The country is Comoros and the neighbouring French island is Mayotte. The devastation caused by Cyclone Chido in December has added to the anger in Mayotte against undocumented migrants from Comoros.

Courtesy Google Maps

14) Chlordecone was a pesticide banned in the U.S. in 1975. In 1979 it was classified as potentially carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. But France officially approved the pesticide in 1981 and it was extensively used by banana plantations in two of its overseas island territories. It was banned in mainland France in 1990 but was allowed in the islands until 1993. Rates of prostate cancer, which are linked to chlordecone, in the islands are among the highest in the world. Name the islands.

Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean. Both islands saw protests over high living costs this year. More here, here and here.

Courtesy Google Maps