Radio War Nerd EP #443 — France's Wars in Chad, feat. Nathaniel Powell
Guest: Nathaniel Powell
Recorded: May 7, 2024
Since 1960, France has intervened in Chad more than in any other of its former colonies, with increasingly disastrous results each time. With France's neo-empire in Africa imploding, we talk to Nathaniel Powell about his book France's Wars in Chad to understand how their interventions failed, and to get a sense of why France is currently facing so much blowback in its former colonies.
*Maps & Images
*New York Times, 1970, showing French Legionnaires killing Chadian rebel
*Tombalbaye
*Maps
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Buy Nathaniel Powell's book France's Wars in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa. Follow Nathaniel on Twitter.
Check out RWN EP #278 — Idriss Déby & Chaditude
Music interlude by Brendon Anderegg. Check out music from his group Mountains here.
Total time: 1:33:10
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Sound production by Telescope Audio
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Order your print or ebook of John Dolan's new book Erdogan Pizza: Dispatches from a Violent & Grotesque World
Comments (13)
Terrific show. This is why I love the War Nerd.
This was great. Your best shows are often on countries that get little to no attention in Western media.
https://twitter.com/ABarbashin/status/1789729869951090789#m — It is humorous how the only country so far to follow the model for how the U.S. won ww2 is Russia.
Does this mean no more Civil War episodes? I’d love a compilation, but if it’s finished I’ll miss ‘em!
Although Chad may be of little economic importance for France, it is part of the CFA franc zone. And the CFA franc zone ties a huge number of people to an overvalued currency, because it’s coupled to the franc/euro. Providing France with a large market for its products in the same way the euro benefits Germany at the cost of Italy and Greece.
I have come to expect “and on that depressing note..” as the ending segue for most historical events covered on this podcast lol
Podcast guest has good audio quality. Does he not know how this works?
If that civil war article collection with intro is enough to fill even a small book I’d love to have it on my shelf next to the War Nerd Illiad!
You know, why fall asleep on a plane only to discover it's true that you're guiding it like some spiced out guild navigator. Like they say, you're not paranoid if they are actually after you
Heh, Nathaniel sounds like Jimmy Fallon.
Hey how do I get Erdogan Pizza?
Amazon for the paperback, or the ebook at https://www.johndolanwrites.com/store/p/erdogan-pizza . If you're a $5+ per show subscriber and missed getting the free ebook write to us at radiowarnerd@gmail.com
Why did Katherine Harris never become the ambassador to Chad? That would have been a perfect job for her.