School of Languages and Area Studies (SLAS)

Profile

My main research interests are in French relations with sub-Saharan Africa in the colonial and post-colonial periods. My book The End of Empire in French West Africa was published in 2002.

I have recently written a number of articles on relations between France and sub-Saharan Africa and am currently working on a series of articles on Anglo-French cooperation in Africa. I am coordinator of the core module 'France and Africa: From the Colonial to the Contemporary Era' on the MA Francophone Africa.

My other areas of research interest are:
Colonial memory in France and Francophone Africa, EU security policy in Africa, the EU and the African Union, issues of immigration and identity in France.

Qualifications

• BA (Hons), French Studies, Nottingham University
• L-ès-L English Literature and Civilisation, Université de Nantes
• MA European Studies, Reading University
• MA Area Studies: Africa, School of Oriental & African Studies, London University
• PhD History, London University

Research Clusters

• Francophone Studies
• Security Studies

Discipline Areas

• Area Studies
• History

Research CV

Current Research Projects

• 2007-10 British Academy Large Research Grant: 'Towards a new policy partnership? France and Britain in Africa since Saint-Malo'. Click HERE for a copy of the Executive Report from the Research Project.
• I have recently completed a research project on 'Exit Strategies and Peace Consolidation’ in a colonial context
• I am also working on a French translation of my book The End of Empire in French West Africa. France's Successful Decolonisation? and an edited volume Francophone Africa at 50.

Authored Books

• 2011 From Rivalry to Partnership? New Approaches to the Challenges of Africa. Farnham: Ashgate (with Gordon Cumming).
• 2002 The End of Empire in French West Africa. France's Successful Decolonisation? (Oxford: Berg), 264pp, ISBN 1859735525 

Edited Books

• 2010 The End of the French Exception? (ed. with Emmanuel Godin), Basingstoke: Palgrave.
• 2004 The French Exception (edited with Emmanuel Godin) (Oxford: Berghahn).
• 2002 Promoting the Colonial Idea: Propaganda and Visions of Empire in France, (edited with Amanda Sackur) (Basingstoke: Palgrave).
• 1999 French Colonial Empire and the Popular Front (edited with Amanda Sackur). (Basingstoke: Macmillan).
• 1996 France: from the Cold War to the New World Order (edited with Brian Jenkins) (Basingstoke: Macmillan)

Journal Articles

• 2011 ‘From rivalry to partnership? Critical reflections on Anglo-French cooperation in Africa’, (with Gordon Cumming) Review of International Studies ), 37, pp. 2439–2463.
• 2011 ‘The AU: a new arena for Anglo-French cooperation in Africa?, Journal of Modern African Studies, 49(1), pp. 55–82.
• 2010 ‘Beyond Fashoda: Anglo-French Security Cooperation in Africa since Saint-Malo’, (with Gordon Cumming) International Affairs, 86(5), pp. 1129-47.
• 2010 (with Jim Coleman) 'Study abroad and the Internet: physical and virtual context in an era of expanding telecommunications', to be published by Frontiers, Fall 2010.
• 2008 'Forgotten Soldiers' in History Today, November 2008, Volume: 58, Issue: 11, pp.35-37. 
• 2007 'Education and Political Socialisation of a National-Colonial Political Elite in French West Africa, 1936-47', The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol.35, No.3, Sept 2007, pp.437-58, ISSN 0308-6534
• 2005 'Chirac and la Françafrique: no longer a family affair', Modern & Contemporary France, 13, 1,  Jan, pp. 7-24, ISSN 0963 9489 
• 2005 (April) 'Africa's Second Decolonisation', BBC History,  pp. 10-11
• 2003 'France/Africa: the End of the Affair? The View From Senegal', SAIS Review, XXIII, 2, pp. 155-67.
• 2002 'Franco-African relations: no longer so exceptional?', African Affairs, 101, Jan,  pp. 343-63, ISSN 0001-9909, DOI 10.1093/afraf/101.404.343 
• 2001 'French African Policy in Historical Context', Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 19, 2, Feb, pp.165-82, ISSN 0258-9001, DOI 10.1080/02589000120066443 
• 2001 'Teaching Africans to be French? France's "civilising mission" and the establishment of a public education system in French West Africa', 1903-30', Africa, 61, 2, pp. 190-209.
• 1992 'France and black Africa: times of change', African Affairs, 91, pp. 27-51.
• 1985 'Mitterrand and Africa, 1981-1984: policy and practice', Modern & Contemporary France, vol. 23, pp .3-11.
• 1985 'Politics and the perception of risk: a study of the anti-nuclear movements in Britain and France', West European Politics, 8, 1, pp.5-23.

Book Chapters

• 2011 'Friend or foe? Competing visions of empire in French West Africa in the run-up to independence', in M. Thomas, ed., The French Colonial Mind, vol. 1, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 275-97.
• 2011 Coleman, J. A. and Chafer, T. The experience and long-term impact of study abroad by Europeans in an African context. In F. Dervin (ed.), Analysing the consequences of academic mobility and migration. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 67-96.
• Godin, E., Chafer, T (2011  .‘An area studies approach in a European and global contexts: French Studies at Portsmouth’ in Lane, P., Worton, M. (eds.) French Studies in and for the 21st Century, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, pp 197-206.
• 2008 ‘From Confidence to Confusion: Franco-African Relations in the Era of Globalisation’, in M. Maclean and J. Szarka, eds. France in the World,  pp.37-56 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan)
• 2008  T. Chafer and M. Evans, 'The Second World War and the Colonial Imagination', in M. Riera and G. Schaffer, eds., The Lasting War: Society and Identity in Britain, France and Germany after 1945,  pp.248-68 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
• 2000 'Education française et conscience nationale en Afrique Occidentale Française', in M. Michel, ed., Frontières plurielles, frontières conflictuelles en Afrique subsaharienne, pp. 233-60 (Paris: L'Harmattan).
• 1997 'Students and nationalism: the role of students in the nationalist movement AOF', in C. Becker, S. Mbaye and I. Thioub, eds., AOF: réalités et héritages. Sociétés ouest africaines et ordre colonial, 1895-1960, pp. 388-407. (Paris & Dakar: Ministère de la Coopération/Direction des Archives du Sénégal).
• 1995 'African perspectives: the liberation of France and its impact in French West Africa' in H. R. Kedward and N. Wood, eds., Liberation: Image and Event, pp. 227-40 (Oxford: Berg).
• 1992 'France's mission civilisatrice in Africa: French culture not for export?', in R. Chapman and N. Hewitt, eds., Popular Culture and Mass Communication in Twentieth Century France, pp. 142-64 (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press).
• 1990 'Activists and ideas in the Green Movement in France' (with B. Prendiville), in Rüdig, W., Green Politics One, pp.177-209. (Edinburgh University Press).
• 1989 'The Green Movement in France', with Prendiville, B. in Müller-Rommel, F., ed., New Politics in Western Europe: The Rise and Success of Green Parties and Alternative Lists (Westview Press).

Other Publications

• 1996 'France and black Africa' edited special issue of Modern and Contemporary France NS4, 4, October
• 1992 Entries on J. Foccart, Affaire 'Carrefour du Développement', in Northcutt, W., ed., Historical Dictionary of the Fourth and Fifth Republics, 1946-1990 (Greenwood).
• 1990 Entries on R. Dumont, J. Foccart, B. Lalonde in Bell, D., and Morris, P., eds., Biographical Dictionary of French Political Leaders since 1870. (Harvester Wheatsheaf).
• 1986 'The twelfth Franco-African summit', Modern & Contemporary France, vol. 25, pp.21-22.

Interviews

• Tony Chafer and Gordon Cumming were interviewed by the journal Afrique Contemporaine on French Africa policy. The interview is published under the title 'Cinquante ans de politique africaine de la France: un point de vue britannique', Afrique contemporaine, 235, 2011, pp. 53-62.

Grants Received

• 2007 British Academy Large Research Grant: 'Towards a new policy partnership? France and Britain in Africa since Saint-Malo'
• 2001 British Academy Conference Grant
• 1999 Travel grant for research in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board
• 1998/9 Sabbatical funded by British Academy Research Leave scheme
• 1995 HEFCE award for collaborative research project on interdisciplinarity
• 1994 HEFCE award for three-year research project on Francophone Area Studies

Consultancy

• I regularly act as a consultant to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on French African policy.