Quote Originally Posted by ganulv View Post
No doubt that France is paternalistic towards its former colonies. The intervention in Cte d'Ivoire would seem to me to be motivated by the desire to maintain stability, in the same way that serving as the guarantor of the CFA does. Not to be flippant, but ensuring a steady supply of cocoa would not seem to me to be worth the effort. I am far from an expert in the area, though, so I could be wrong.



Or is the human geography reshuffling itself within the post-colonial political geography, as Joshua Landis suggests is happening in Syria and Iraq?
Anyone who lives in Sub Saharan Africa (not South Africa) will know how meaningless colonial borders are - you can move by speedboat from Uyo in Nigeria to Malabo. Boko Haram moves from one meaningless colonial border to another - people on all sides are the same.

The problem is that certain key states in Africa are growing weaker internally, not stronger - so why wouldn't Yorubas in Benin Republic associate more with Yorubas in Nigeria? A bit more like "ethnic nationalism" in 19th and 20 Century Europe.