Francophone Africa – (M.A.)

The largest concentration of countries in the world in which French is the official language is in Africa. Yet very little is known in the English-speaking world about the history, politics and society of those vast areas of the African continent that were previously under French colonial rule and that are today referred to under the generic term 'Francophone Africa'.

This highly innovative new Master's course offers a programme that focuses exclusively on Francophone Africa. It provides an exciting opportunity to study in depth France's relations with both French-speaking North Africa (focusing in particular on Algeria) and sub-Saharan Africa. A key feature of the degree is that it incorporates a study of the history of the very different approaches to French colonial rule in each of these regions with an analysis of how this historical relationship has shaped - and continues to shape - contemporary relations between France and its former African colonies. France's rapidly changing relationship with both North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa in the contemporary period and the impact of France's African empire on France today are key areas of study.

The first of its kind in Europe, this MA will be informed by three distinctive intellectual approaches. The first will be comparative. The focus will not be on a particular nation or area, but will examine connections and relationships across the whole of Francophone Africa. Second, the course will study Francophone Africa within a transnational context, underlining how Africans have engaged with, for example, decolonisation, nationalism, the Cold War, political Islam and globalisation. Third, the course will situate the region within its wider global context, with a view to analysing the singularity of the colonial and post-colonial experience of Francophone Africa.

The course can be studied full-time over one year or part-time over two years.