ABSTRACT
The Fashoda complex obsessed Francois Mitterrand throughout his life, and it was in Yamoussoukro that he led the French establishment on what in retrospect was its last gasp. For more than a century before Mitterrand became president, the role of France in Africa had seen a remarkable political consensus between the left and the right wings of French politics. The major challenge to France, however, came from within, in the form of the National Assembly Mission d’information sur le Rwanda, the only official published French study into France’s role in the region in 1990–1994. The changing nature of the African political elite—for better or for worse—has been the key element in forcing a change in the way in which African countries are perceived. Ethnicity in much of Africa is much more significant as a tool in the armory of politicians than as the foundation of a deep-rooted culturally-based conflict.
