A Non-colonial Power in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa

The connections between Switzerland and Africa are not immediately obvious. After all, this small, land-locked European country has never had colonies abroad. Nevertheless, there were and are numerous ties between Swiss and African people, organisations, and states. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some Swiss citizens and companies were involved in the triangular slave trade.1 In the wake of the European powers, which extended their control over the continent during the last third of the nineteenth century, Swiss missionaries, farmers, and entrepreneurs settled in Africa, benefiting from the structures put in place by the colonial authorities.2 Swiss geographical societies launched expeditions to Africa.3 Back in Switzerland, missionaries and explorers contributed to the dissemination of colonial imageries and racial