@drdanisanchez Tweeting for @twitterstorian again today. Based on my last few threads, you can probably guess that I am not a bullets/battlefields WWII historian. I gave a lecture at Temple's @Cenfad a few years ago about the optics of Free France in Brazzaville and... 1/

Someone saw something I had never noticed in an image I used on a slide: the guns are old AF. Like WWI old. Even though I am interested in material culture, I'm not a gun person (much to my brother's dismay), so I never really examined the guns used in BZV during WWII. 2/

Old guns and antiquated military technology in BZV can tell us a lot about militarization and funding the "Miracle on the Congo" according to Ben Lucien Burman (read it. It is RIDICULOUS). 1. Mobilizing military resources to French Eq. Africa after the fall of France was hard. 3/

2. Free France in Africa was comically broke. Currency (franc) was meaningless after the fall of France and the rise of Free France in central Africa. Their purchasing power was laughable. That's why they needed other nations to formally recognize their legitimacy- loans! 4/

In fact, the US sent aid to Free France in Africa before they formally recognized Free France. They sent an SUV and FF was not happy about it because it couldn't hold up in the central African terrain. Propaganda department took pics with it, then they cast it aside. 5/

3. There is a type of ceremonial performance that was happening during BZV during WWII. Propaganda images caught the seemingly loyal Congolese tirailleurs training... but it all falls apart once one looks closer. The guns are an example of this. 6/

@BritishPathe has this great reel on Brazzaville as capital of Free France that ties into the performative nature of Brazzaville. The carefully curated film shows loyalty, grand colonial buildings, and military force... 7/ https://www.britishpathe.com/video/with-the-free-french-in-africa-on-sleeve-as-with

But it doesn't capture the resistance just past the veneer. It doesn't show angry Congolese youths throwing rocks at police officers and colonial agents, or people running away from conscription officers. It doesn't show the vile treatment of Congolese civilians by 8/

French soldiers and civilians. When we "see" Brazzaville during WWII, we have to remember that we see what the colonial state wanted outsiders to see. The female volunteer force is a great example of this. BZV didn't have "a hotel worthy of the name." 9/

The colonial state scrambled as journalists, dignitaries, and other foreigners demanded to come to BZV to see this miraculous city. A cohort of French women in Congo created a master registry of available beds in the city to house visitors. 10/

They claimed it was to offer a more authentic look at the city, but it really was out of desperation. They also posed as social navigators who would introduce them to high society... but really they wanted to choreograph visits to keep people away from critics in the city. 11/

Once again, another weird footnote in WWII history, but it gives us a glimpse into economics and power dynamics in the capital of Free France in Africa. Sanchez out. DS