Thirty-five years ago, Présence Africaine, along with many other institutions, embarked on a path to correct colonialism. In its role as an agent of change, the journal has continued over the years to reflect and inform the values of Black nations. Yet today, when former colonialist oppression has not infrequently given way to control by multinational businesses or inter-governmental consortia, the very term “neo-colonialism” addresses a new problematic for Présence Africaine. It is a problematic whose complexities lead to the following question. Simply stated, who is the oppressor now? This essay will examine that question in light of the journal's own history. How has its editorial policy changed? What writers are represented? What shifts in subject matter and author have captured the readers' attention and imagination? Indeed, has the reading public itself changed, representing new constituencies, both geographically and politically? What, finally, are the implications of its history in an age of neo-colonalism?

The definition of colonialism underlying this study is the following: “Colonialism denotes a relationship of domination and, like other forms of oppression, it is a structural system of hierarchically ordered and ranked relationships between at least two parties (Martin and Cohen, 1980: 21-60). An instance of oppression at work in francophone literature is found in the Pléiade edition of Histoire des littératures (Gallimard, 1958). The sanction of the Pléiade, most will agree, is one of the standards of admission into the privileged canon of French letters.