From the moment when the colonial empire in sub-Saharan Africa waned, there was a sustained attempt at reinterpreting this decolonisation process as something intended and guided by leading French politicians and planners. The French public has become familiar with this notion of a planned decolonisation mainly because it is embedded in the discourses of aid policy, cooperation, Francophonie and 'French civilisation' or the 'civilising mission'. French decolonisation has become a favourite theme of a particular type of journalistic investigation. The 'conspiracy' narrative is sustained by the fact that French governments, on the basis of defence and military assistance agreements, came to the aid of authoritarian leaders in the former French colonies and other African countries. The introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book investigates the propaganda employed by the French army to motivate African soldiers in French West Africa.