The years 1988 to 1996 are significant in Francophone West Africa as three decades of state party monopolies of national, economic and social development gave way to popular movements and widespread re participation in the running of public affairs. Coalitions of social movements were formed, federalised and then dispersed. Their dispersal however did not render the democratic stakes any less urgent. The author identifies the present difficulty moving beyond notions of democracy conceived to suit any circumstances of discourse, to a more concrete definition. The author also argues that what is at stake for democracy stretches well beyond the parameters styled by governments and encompasses for example conditions of reproduction of West African societies. Text in French. 153pp, SENEGAL. CODESRIA.

By looking at engagée literature from the recent past, when the francophone African writer was implicitly seen as imparted with a mission, to the present, when such authors usually aspire to be acknowledged primarily for their work as writers, this study addresses the current processes of canonization in contemporary francophone African literature. Odile Cazenave and Patricia Célérier argue that aesthetic as well as political issues are now at the forefront of debates about the African literary canon, as writers and critics increasingly acknowledge the ideology of form. Working across genres but focusing on the novel, the authors take up the question of renewed forms of commitment in this literature. Their selected writers range from Mongo Beti, Ousmane Sembène, and Aminata Sow Fall to Boubacar Boris Diop, Véronique Tadjo, Alain Mabanckou, and Léonora Miano, among others. 256pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS.

Building on the critical foundations of Edward Said's Orientalism, the author examines the relationship between the Orientalist tradition in French art and literature and the country's colonial history. A particular focus of the study is the prevalence of the 'oriental woman' and the interplay of race and gender in both domestic and colonial history. Index, bib, notes, xiv, 234pp, USA. STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

The role of French security policy and cooperation in Africa has long been recognized as a critically important factor in African politics and international relations. This new security cooperation, a trend actively promoted by other major Western powers, adds to our understanding of this broader trend in African relations with the industrialized North. Yet this book argues that French involvement in Africa is not in the interest of Africans, since French intervention denies African political freedom and sustains their current social, economic and political conditions. Index, bib, 189pp, UK. ASHGATE.

Second Edition, with two new chapters that discuss developments in the region since 1985. Focusing on the French speaking countries of West and Central Africa, the book brings out the way in which the pre-colonial African heritage shaped new societies, in interaction with French and Belgian colonial rules, and with global economic and cultural forces. Maps, bib, index, ix, 247pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Offers evidence to suggest that through its educational policy the French government was determined to keep the Vietnamese ands the West African population subservient. Index, 271pp, USA. AMSP.

In 2005, following the death of two youths of African origin, France erupted in a wave of violent protest. More than 10,000 automobiles were burned or stoned, hundreds of public buildings were vandalized or burned to the ground, and hundreds of people were injured. Charles Tshimanga, Ch. Didier Gondola, Peter J. Bloom, and a group of international scholars seek to understand the causes and consequences of these momentous events, while examining how the concept of Frenchness has been reshaped by the African diaspora in France and the colonial legacy. Index, bib, gloss, 336pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

A biographical history of the French oil industry - one of the most important in Africa in the form of ELF and TOTAL - told from the perspective of the lives of the men who made it. How old is the French oil industry? Who founded it? Who ruled it? Going back to the old family firms that drilled and distilled petroleum in the late Middle Ages, this book follows the rise of a new breed of state engineers, educated at the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique, who became members of a state administrative elite. 276pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.

Classic study now out of print. Condition: good. Some coverwear, pages mostly clean but some annotated, binding sound. 430pp, UK. PALL MALL PRESS.

New in paperback. During its campaign against France in 1940, the German army massacred several thousand black POWs belonging to units drafted in France's West African colonies. This book for the first time documents these war crimes on the basis of extensive research in French and German archives. A massive Nazi propaganda offensive approved by Hitler, reviving traditional images of black soldiers as mutilating savages, formed the background for the massacres. The book shows, however, that the treatment of black French POWs was highly inconsistent and that abuses were often triggered by certain combat situations. It connects the massacres of black French soldiers to the debates on the Nazification of the German army during World War II and places them in the context of the treatment of non-white illegitimate combatants in colonial wars. 216pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

New in paperback. The Voulet-Chanoine mission left Dakar in 1898 for the centre of Africa and the region of Lake Chad with the aim of establishing effective borders between the French and British empires while 'pacifying' a notoriously belligerent region. Wreaking havoc as it went along, the mission degenerated into an extraordinary display of colonial violence and cruelty, leaving a trail of pillage, murder, and enslavement of the local inhabitants in its wake. When the story of its outrages reached Paris in 1899 there was a public uproar and a second mission was dispatched to investigate. Eventually, on July 14 1899, the two missions met and confronted each other in a dramatic shootout, which led Voulet and Chanoine to declare their independence from France and their desire to establish an African kingdom under their own rule. 336pp, UK. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

A study of francophone African literary production at the end of the twentieth century, proposing that the literatures are characterised by a remarkable vitality and diversity. TEXT IN FRENCH. 94pp, SENEGAL. CODESRIA.

Examines the links between literature and the state in Francophone Africa and the contribution writers have made in the transition to democracy. Index, bib, notes, 260pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

This is probably this strange writer's strangest work says the translator of this first English edition of Roussel's final creative work. The poem's structure resembles hypertext, endless successions of afterthoughts separated by growing clumps of brackets, which plunge the reader into a labyrinth. It took him 12 years to compose, or as he himself calculated, approximately 19,110 hours. Illustrated by an artist Roussel commissioned through a private detective agency so as not to have to show him the text, the pictures are trapped inside uncut pages. This edition reproduces the original format with its special uncut pages, includes the French text opposite the English, and Roussel's instructions to the despondent Zo. The translation is by Ian Monk with the assistance of Harry Mathews, both members of the Oulipo, a (mainly French) group of writers and mathematicians. 256pp, UK. ATLAS PRESS.

New in paperback. Traces the political evolution of the fourteen countries in west and equatorial Africa, exploring the elements that have shaped their particular political dynamics while allowing them to remain part of a unique francophone socio-political community. Index, bib, apps, 425pp, USA. LYNNE RIENNER.

A wide ranging survey of ethnic minorities, principally from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, in contemporary France, and the vibrant cultural practices they have forged. BNS, 290pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

This is the first book to identify Sub-Saharan African lineage within the broader tradition of travel writing. It is intended to open up a dialogue between researchers from different backgrounds: French and postcolonial, travel writing and African Studies. As well as exploring the reasons for Africans' exclusion from the genre, the book examines the important relationship between ethnicity and travel and identifies the concerns and preoccupations that define African writers' approaches to travel. 224pp, UK. LIVERPOOL U P.

Bringing a comparative perspective to the study of autobiography, Edgard Sankara considers a cross-section of postcolonial francophone writing from Africa and the Caribbean in order to examine and compare for the first time their transnational reception. Sankara not only compares the ways in which a wide selection of autobiographies were received locally (as well as in France) but also juxtaposes reception by the colonized and the colonizer to show how different meanings were assigned to the works after publication. Sankara's geographical and cultural coverage of Africa and its diaspora is rich, with separate chapters devoted to the autobiographies of Hampâté Bâ, Valentin Mudimbé, Kesso Barry, Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphaël Confiant, and Maryse Condé. 232pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS.

Argues that two series of school textbooks widely used across Francophone Africa have led to self-revulsion and bizarre attraction in equal measure among African elites. These are the collections put together by the missionary brothers, Macaire and Grill, and the Mamadou et Bineta series by André Davesne alone or in collaboration with J. Gouin. To have an understanding of the kind of scholar produced by colonialism nearly a century on, this book explores the sources that fed the imaginations of generations of African elites, the better to rid Africa of its unhealthy residual French complexes. IN FRENCH. Index, 228pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

A collection of papers by sociologists in Francophone African countries, including Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, Benin, Senegal and Togo looking primarily at urban rural relations. Index, notes, 201pp, SWEDEN. NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE.

An interdisciplinary study of Francophone African literature bringing in aspects of African philosophy, literary theory, postcolonial studies and cinema. Index, bib, notes, x, 215pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS.

Tells the story of the almost forgotten ill-equipped ragtag French force and details the units that participated in this struggle. 152pp, USA. GREENWOOD.

An examination of the role of the Vichy regime in bringing about profound changes in the French colonial empire after World War II, looking in particular at the nature of the beginnings of decolonisation. BNS, 401pp, USA. STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.