The Spirit of Lomé and the Ghost of Eurafrica: Euro-African Relations in the 1970s and 1980s

According to the dominant narratives in European integration historiography, the European project was driven by two overarching concerns: securing peace among European states and establishing a West European bulwark against the Soviet menace. More recently, an emerging body of literature has highlighted a third, powerful driver of integration: the desire to perpetuate colonial ties with Africa. Seeking to extend this historiographical perspective into the more mature years of the European Economic Community, this thesis reconstructs Euro-African relations from 1969 to 1989, investigating the persistence of colonial aims and practices in the European approach to newly independent African states. The research revolves around the making and the evolution of the Lomé Conventions – the agreements that governed Euro-African relations from 1975 onwards, which are examined in relation to the institutional dynamics of the Community, the interactions among Member States, and the broader international context. The African perspective is also taken into account, in order to interrogate the agency of African states in shaping Euro-African relations. Given the multipolar nature of the subject, the study builds on a vast range of archival sources, starting with the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence. In light of Paris’s central role in shaping Europe’s approach to Africa since 1957, French national and diplomatic archives are extensively consulted. British national archives illuminate the influence of the other major colonial power on Euro-African relations from 1973 onwards. Finally, Senegalese and Ghanaian national archives are consulted to investigate the positions of Francophone and Anglophone African states, respectively. By drawing together these diverse sources and analysing them through an original theoretical framework, this reconstruction of Euro-African relations aims to offer a fresh understanding of both European integration history and Europe’s external relations.