Fashoda syndrome, or a 'spirit of Fashoda', is the name given to a tendency within French foreign policy in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, giving importance to asserting French influence in areas which may be becoming susceptible to British influence. It is named for the Fashoda incident

Fashoda Incident

The Fashoda Incident was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between Britain and France in Eastern Africa. A French expedition to Fashoda on the White Nile sought to gain control of the Nile River and thereby force Britain out of Egypt. The British held firm as Britain and France were on...

 (1898) which is judged to have given rise to it. In The State of Africa, Martin Meredith

Martin Meredith

Martin Meredith is a historian, journalist, and biographer who has written several books on Africa and its modern history.Meredith first worked as a foreign correspondent in Africa for the Observer and Sunday Times, then as a research fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford...

 says:

'Ever since an incident in the Sudanese village of Fashoda ... the French had been vigilant in guarding against anglophone encroachment in what they considered to be their own backyard — le pré carré. In his memoirs, General de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

 listed the disasters that had afflicted France in his youth and that had led him to devote himself to upholding France's 'grandeur': the first on the list was the Fashoda incident. The 'Fashoda syndrome', as it was known, formed a basic component of France's Africa policy. To ensure that African issues received due attention, the French presidential office included a special Africa Unit — Cellule Africaine — with a wide remit to cover everything from intelligence work to bribery.'

Meredith judges that the 1990 French intervention in Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

 was an expression of the 'syndrome'. Rwanda lies on the border between 'Francophone' and 'Anglophone' Africa. In 1990, there was a short-lived invasion by the Rwandan Patriotic Front

Rwandan Patriotic Front

The Rwandan Patriotic Front abbreviated as RPF is the current ruling political party of Rwanda, led by President Paul Kagame. It governs in a coalition with other parties...

 (RPF), a coalition of Tutsi

Tutsi

The Tutsi , or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watussi or Watusi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa ....

 exiles and those advocating democratic reform. Many of the RPF had grown up in Tutsi refugee camps in Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 and had learned to fight in the Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

n army, and Uganda was seen by Paris as being, at that time, within the British sphere of influence.