The Françafrique File: Secret Agreements, Oil, Intelligence & Power After Independence

What happened to French power in Africa after independence?

Did it disappear with colonial rule?

Did it simply change form?

Or has the story of Françafrique itself become so politicized that both supporters and critics sometimes make the evidence say more than it actually does?

In this episode of The Shadow Files, Joshua T. Berglan examines the documentary record behind one of the most controversial political ideas in modern African history.

The investigation begins with France’s own parliamentary record listing a 1974 secret defense agreement with Cameroon and expands into treaties covering strategic raw materials, Jacques Foccart’s political networks, Togo President Sylvanus Olympio and monetary sovereignty, French support to Biafra, mercenary Bob Denard, French intelligence, the Elf oil scandal and the role African presidents themselves played inside these networks. Pasted markdown Pasted markdown

The episode also asks a question often missing from the conversation:

Were African leaders simply victims of French influence—or were they also political actors who negotiated, leveraged and sometimes shaped these relationships themselves? Pasted markdown

Finally, the investigation follows the story into the present, examining how France’s military posture in West and Central Africa has changed and why the political architecture of the 1960s cannot simply be copied and pasted onto 2026. Pasted markdown

This is not an argument that France controlled everything.

It is not an argument that Françafrique was imaginary.

It is an investigation into what the documents actually allow us to say.