'Saving French West Africa': The French army, African soldiers and military propaganda during the 1950s

This chapter examines the ways in which the French military authorities attempted to halt the process of decolonisation in Afrique Occidentale Francaise (AOF) by exploiting the service of Africans in the French army as a tool of propaganda. It discusses the deterioration of the relations between African soldiers and their French commanders during the Second World War and the military's successful attempts to win the hearts of soldiers and veterans during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The chapter describes the African participation in the two major colonial conflicts of that time - the Indochina and Algerian Wars. It considers the propaganda that the French Army attempted to disseminate in AOF in order to convince the population of this federation and their political leaders that the relations between the French army and its African soldiers.