René Journiac
René Journiac | |
|---|---|
| Head of African Department | |
| In office 1974–1980 | |
| President | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing |
| Preceded by | Jacques Foccart (as Secretary-General for African and Malagasy Affairs) |
| Succeeded by | Martin Kirsch[1][2] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | René Antoine Georges Journiac 11 May 1921 Saint-Martin-Vésubie, Alpes-Maritimes |
| Died | 6 February 1980 (aged 58) Cameroon |
| Nationality | French |
René Journiac (Saint-Martin-Vésubie, 11 May 1921 – Cameroon, 6 February 1980) was a French magistrate and high functionary. He served as a prominent counsellor on African affairs and as leader of the government's "African Department" during the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.[3]
Journiac first rose to power under Georges Pompidou as a right-hand man of Jacques Foccart and was seen as perpetuating the latter's approach of maintaining French influence in its former colonies through a web of personal relationships with African strongmen.[4] This led the French historian Pascal Geneste to quip that "what Foccart was to de Gaulle, Journiac is to Pompidou".[4]
After the election of Giscard in 1974, Journiac largely took over Foccart's functions in the Secretariat for African and Malagasy Affairs; the latter was renamed to the African Department. The main instigator of strong relations with Mobutu's Zaire, he signed a defense pact with the Zairese regime in 1974 which gave way to substantial French aid to Mobutu during the 1977 civil war.[5] In 1977, documents forgotten by the mercenary Bob Denard during a coup attempt in Benin revealed the complicity of Journiac (alongside Omar Bongo, Hassan II and Gnassingbé Eyadéma) in the attempt.[6] He was also closely involved in Operation Tacaud in Chad[7] and played an important role in negotiating with Jean-Bédel Bokassa (who allegedly threatened to beat Journiac with his cane when the latter proposed that he step down) in the period that built up to the French-orchestrated 1979 coup.[8]
In 1980, while travelling in a Gabonese airplane piloted by a nephew of Omar Bongo, Journiac's plane crashed in Cameroon, killing him.[9] Martin Kirsch briefly succeeded him as head of the African Department before being replaced by Guy Penne.[1][2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Cellules africaines". Africa Intelligence. 19 March 1992. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ a b "Les hommes de l'ombre de la République". L'Internaute. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ de La Guérivière, Jean (8 February 1980). "La mort de M. René Journiac". Le Monde. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ a b Servenay, David (2023). "Foccart, Marenches, Journiac : trois « crocodiles » dans le marigot du renseignement franco-africain". In Borrel, Thomas; Boukari-Yabara, Amzat; Collombat, Benoît; Deltombe, Thomas (eds.). Une histoire de la Françafrique: L'empire qui ne veut pas mourir. Seuil. pp. 504–505. ISBN 9782757897751.
- ^ Picard, Maurin (2023). "Mobutu, allié stratégique de la France au coeur de l'Afrique". In Borrel, Thomas; Boukari-Yabara, Amzat; Collombat, Benoît; Deltombe, Thomas (eds.). Une histoire de la Françafrique: L'empire qui ne veut pas mourir. Seuil. pp. 529–541. ISBN 9782757897751.
- ^ Bat, Jean-Pierre (2016). "Le secteur N (Afrique) et la fin de la Guerre froide". Relations Internationales. 165 (1): 43–56. doi:10.3917/ri.165.0043. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Sharkey, Heather J. (2013). "Le Soudan, un pays indivisible, dual ou pluriel ? Chronique post-rupture". Afrique contemporaine. 246 (2): 21–34. doi:10.3917/afco.246.0021. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Powell, Nathaniel K. (2021). France's Wars in Chad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 237-244. ISBN 9781108488679.
- ^ Koven, Ronald (7 February 1980). "Giscard's Africa Expert Dies in Cameroon Crash". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 February 2025.