The Franco-Congolese agreement to enshrine the corpse of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza in a grand memorial tomb in Brazzaville (2006) has been decried by many observers as neo-colonial farce. This article interprets France's agenda to propose a ‘suave reconquest' of its former colonies, and...

All colonial powers granted concessions to private companies to extract natural resources during the colonial era. Within Africa, these concessions were characterized by indirect rule and violence. We use the arbitrarily defined borders of rubber concessions granted in the north of the Congo...