From the Failure of Partnership Narrative to the Rejection of Legitimacy: Youth Resistance and the Unmaking of Françafrique (Published)
This article interrogates the erosion of France’s legitimacy in Francophone Africa through the lens of narrative failure, shifting geopolitics, and youth-led resistance. Moving beyond traditional analyses of Françafrique, which emphasise political, economic, and military entanglements, this study examines the role of narrative construction in sustaining or undermining international influence. The paper argues that France’s long-standing partnership narrative has lost credibility among African youth, who increasingly interpret French engagement as a continuation of neo-imperial practices. By situating this legitimacy crisis within broader global transformations, including the diversification of external actors and the decline of post-colonial patronage systems, the paper analyses the rise of digitally mediated historical consciousness. It shows how youth movements mobilise counter-narratives rooted in colonial memory, sovereignty, and dignity to challenge France’s presence. Through discourse analysis and selected case illustrations, the article demonstrates how these narratives circulate across social media, protest movements, and cultural production that reshape public opinion and influence state-level alignments. The findings suggest that France’s reliance on established instruments of influence, such as military bases, elite networks, and conditionality frameworks, fails to resonate with a generation demanding more equitable and transparent partnerships. The study contributes to debates on decolonising international relations by highlighting the centrality of narrative legitimacy in contemporary soft power competition. It concludes that without a substantive re-articulation of its engagement grounded in mutual respect, France risks further rejection by Francophone African youth within an evolving geopolitical landscape.
Keywords: Counter-narratives, Françafrique, decoloniality, historical consciousness, narrative legitimacy, youth resistance
Cultural Diplomacy and the Reconfiguration of Global Geostrategic Narratives: African Positionality in a Multipolar Order (Published)
As global power configurations shift toward an increasingly multipolar order, cultural diplomacy has emerged as a critical instrument in the reconfiguration of influence and partnership within the Global Majority. This paper examines how multipolarity is reshaping cultural hegemony, with a particular focus on Africa as a central arena of geopolitical, cultural, and epistemic contestation. Moving beyond materialist accounts of power, the study investigates how emerging and non-Western actors engage African states and societies through culturally resonant, affective, and identity-based forms of diplomacy that challenge long-standing Eurocentric dominance.Using a qualitative research design grounded in critical discourse analysis and policy review, the paper draws on interdisciplinary frameworks from postcolonial theory, decoloniality, international cultural relations, associationism, and soft power studies. Through comparative case studies of China-Africa, Qatar-Africa, Russia-Africa, and Turkey-Africa relations, the research illustrates how cultural diplomacy emphasising mutual respect, historical solidarity, sovereignty, and shared values is increasingly displacing Western models rooted in conditionality and normative hierarchy.The findings reveal that emerging powers are more effective in fostering durable partnerships when cultural diplomacy prioritises emotional intelligence, recognition, and narrative alignment rather than transactional service delivery or ideological persuasion. These dynamics signal a broader shift in cultural hegemony within a multipolar global system, in which Africa exercises greater agency in navigating competing influences. The paper contributes to debates on decolonisation and global governance by demonstrating that cultural diplomacy is central, rather than peripheral, to contemporary geopolitical transformations and calls for African-led cultural strategies that leverage multipolarity to advance sovereign, balanced, and culturally grounded international relations and partnerships.
Keywords: cultural diplomacy, cultural hegemony, decoloniality, geostrategy, global majority, multipolarity