African confessions

In the true secrets of FrançafriqueA symbol of "Françafrique", lawyer-lobbyist Robert Bourgi writes for the very first time about his life, his relationship with his mentor Jacques Foccart, and all the "missions" he carried out over almost forty years on behalf of African and French presidents, including the leading lights of the Right (Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, Charles Pasqua, Jacques Toubon, Dominique de Villepin, Claude Guéant, François Fillon etc.).   From Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Laurent Gbagbo (Côte d'Ivoire) to Mobutu Sese Seko (DR Congo), via Blaise Compaoré (Burkina Faso), Mathieu Kérékou (Benin), Abdoulaye Wade and Macky Sall (Senegal), Mohamed ould Abdel Aziz (Mauritania), Gnassingbé Eyadéma (Togo), Pascal Lissouba, Denis Sassou Nguesso (Congo) and above all Omar and Ali Bongo (Gabon), it lifts the veil on the psychology of numerous presidents, south of the Sahara, and their regimes, giving the reader a fresh look at France's African policy over several decades. Robert Bourgi. Born on April 4, 1945 in Dakar, Robert Bourgi, nicknamed "Bob" by Jacques Foccart, is a Franco-Lebanese lawyer, lobbyist and political advisor. With a doctorate in public law, this former teacher was for many years responsible for relations with Africa at Club 89, the influential think-tank of the Rassemblement des Républicains (RPR), before becoming the main cog in the transfer of funds between African presidencies and several political formations in France.Frédéric Lejeal. A political scientist by training, Frédéric Lejeal has been a journalist specializing in Africa for the past twenty-five years. A former contributor to the business magazines Marchés Tropicaux et Méditerranéens and Jeune Afrique, he spent ten years running La Lettre du Continent, a confidential publication on politics and business networks in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. A student of historian Élikia M'Bokolo, he is the author of several books, including Le Burkina Faso (Karthala, 2002) and Le déclin franco-africain (L'Harmattan, March 2023).