Protocol and state inculturation in Francophone Africa: Towards an anthropological approach to France-Africa relations

State protocol remains a neglected field within France-Africa relations, although it did impact French domestic politics during the successive "cohabitation" periods. Using back a Raymond Firth's conceptual distinction between forced "acculturation" and voluntary "inculturation" in a Pacific society, this article aims to identify features of inculturation present inside the working of the state among Sub-Saharan countries decolonized from France in 1960. It distinguishes between two inculturation streams: (i) a "vertical" (historical) one in the State prestige symbolism of presidential palaces, noticeable even in a country such as Mali having twice confronted itself with its former colonizer, France; (ii) an horizontal (contemporary) one, deliberately twisting international protocol during state funeral ceremonies in favour of French presidents under a close political and/or military alliance system, as it occurred during State funeral ceremonies in Côte d'Ivoire and Chad.