Eurafrica. Multiple Futurities in a Decolonizing World Public lecture by Dr. Anne-Isabelle Richard

Recent work by Fred Cooper and others has drawn attention to federal projects that were explored in the early decolonization period. Eurafrica was one such project. The idea of Eurafrica goes back to the 19th century when it was seen as a common European burden to ‘civilise’ the black continent. In the late 1940s and 1950s it was reconceived in multiple ways by African actors. While future Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah emphasised the neo- colonial character, future Senegalese president Léopold Senghor reconceived of Eurafrica for emancipatory purposes. The idea of an interdependent and complementary relationship between the two continents was used in all contexts, although the understanding of that relationship was highly contested. This paper will examine how actors from the French Union connected to their non- francophone African and European counterparts and developed the Eurafrican idea. As a case study, it will focus on the Council of Europe, which had representatives from the French Union from the start in 1949. These politicians used this European platform to address French policies and European projects and voice their own claims. While the broader project is set in a longer term perspective connecting to current EU-Africa relations, the focus will be on the early 1950s: with European projects under construction and Asia rapidly decolonising, the future of the African colonies was hotly debated and a Eurafrican project was seriously examined.