The postcolonial cultural transaction: rethinking the Guinea crisis within the French cultural strategy for Africa, 1958–60

Abstract

In 1958 Guinea voted to become independent. Historians have argued French administrators left Conakry as a form of punishment while Soviet aid offers turned Guinea into a Cold War frontline. This article, however, argues that the French handling of the Guinea crisis was fundamentally shaped by disagreements about cultural assistance. French culture, which in the early 1950s was viewed as a tool aimed at cultivating African loyalty, during the crisis became a modernising force uniquely suited to boosting African development. In 1960, cultural assistance became explicitly transactional: African countries that were expected to remain loyal to France received culture in return. The story of cultural assistance, therefore, elucidates the French understanding of empire and the Cold War in Africa.