"Shortly before midnight on August 10 1960, the famous writer André Malraux stepped onto a balcony in front of a large crowd in Fort-Lamy, the capital of the French colony of Chad. As French Minister of Culture, he had come as President Charles de Gaulle's official representative to preside over the ceremonies marking the territory's independence. While Malraux invoked Chad's historical role as a launching pad for Free French Forces in the Second World War and the linked destiny of the two nations, the lights suddenly went out. A power shortage had plunged Fort-Lamy into darkness. Someone in Malraux's entourage scrambled to find a flashlight so he could finish the speech and so François Tombalbaye, Chad's leader, could read his. With this inauspicious beginning, independent Chad would soon embark on a tragic path leading to decades of violent conflict, foreign interventions, state collapse, and bloody dictatorship"-- Provided by publisher.

"Experts in decolonization" --Operation Limousin -- The Claustre Affair -- The empire strikes back : French intervention and return to war -- The return of Habré -- Nigeria enters the scene -- The decline and fall of the Central African Empire -- Libya invades -- Endgame -- Conclusions : the collapse of a neocolonial order.