The French Army and Its African Soldiers: The Years of Decolonization Unavailable

Ginio’s The French Army and Its African Soldiers is an indispensable addition to the literature about decolonization in an area of the world critical to that process. As she notes, West Africa between the years 1945 and 1960 has attracted comparatively little attention, since, unlike in other areas of the world, independence there was not associated with war or even violence. That does not mean, however, that the army and military matters were unimportant. As this book demonstrates, the French army played a critical role in shaping the structure of colonialism, the process of dissolving colonial control, and the nature of postcolonial states in the region. It did so through policies directed at the thousands of Africans who served in the French ranks during World War II or in garrisons throughout the region, as well as through attempts to prop up French colonial rule through wars in Indochina and Algeria....