Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:40:10.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Keur Farah Pahlavi Project and Iranian-Senegalese Relations in the 1970s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Robert Steele*
Affiliation:
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Addressing the scarcity of scholarly literature on Iran’s involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa during the Pahlavi period, this paper demonstrates that throughout the 1970s, as the shah’s international standing rose and Iran’s economy grew, so too did Iran’s political and economic relationships with several African countries, especially Senegal. The article will explore a number of factors that stimulated this relationship, most significantly Senegal’s strategic and symbolic importance, and the personal friendships that developed between the countries’ leaders. The ultimate manifestation of this bilateral relationship was the Keur Farah Pahlavi project; a joint Iranian–Senegalese city to be constructed in Senegal. By exploring this project, the paper aims to demonstrate the strategies through which the Pahlavi state sought to expand its influence worldwide.

Type
Iran in the World
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author would like to thank the Iranian Studies anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the paper, and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA for supporting this research through the Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Fellowship.

References

Afkhami, Gholam Reza. The Life and Times of the Shah. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ʿĀlikhāni, ʿAli-Naqi, ed. Yāddāshthā-ye ʿAlam. 7 vols. Tehran: Ketābsarā, 1393/2014.Google Scholar
Alvandi, Roham. Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansari, Ali M. Modern Iran since 1797: Reform and Revolution. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakhshi, Ahmad. “Barresi-ye Tārikhi-ye Ravābet-e Khāreji-ye Irān va Qāreh-ye Āfriqā.” Tārikh-e Ravābet-e Khāreji 35 (1387/2008): 3275.Google Scholar
Beazley, Kim C. “The October War, the 1973–1974 Arab Oil Embargo, and U.S. Policy on the Indian Ocean.” In The Indian Ocean in Global Politics, ed. Bowman, Larry W., and Clark, Ian, 107129. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Belmonte, Monica L, ed. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXVII, Iran; Iraq, 1973–1976. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 2012.Google Scholar
Bonnefond, Philippe, and Couty, Philippe. “Agricultural Crisis: Past and Future.” In The Political Economy of Senegal under Structural Adjustment, ed. Delgado, Christopher L., and Jammeh, Sidi, 3145. New York: Praeger, 1991.Google Scholar
Boone, Catherine. Merchant Capital and the Roots of State Power in Senegal 1930–1985. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boye, François. “A Retrospective Analysis of the Senegalese Economy.” Paper published by the Center for Economic Research on Africa, Montclair State University, 1990.Google Scholar
Chehabi, H.E. “South Africa and Iran in the Apartheid Era.” Journal of Southern African Studies 42, no. 4 (2006): 687709. doi: 10.1080/03057070.2016.1201330CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chehabi, H.E. “A Cosmopolitan Dandy: Amir Abbas Hoveyda.” In The Age of Aryamehr: Late Pahlavi Iran and its Global Entanglements, ed. Alvandi, Roham, 147167. London: Gingko Library, 2018.Google Scholar
Chehabi, H.E.The Shiraz Festival and its Place in Iran’s Revolutionary Mythology.” In The Age of Aryamehr: Late Pahlavi Iran and its Global Entanglements, ed. Alvandi, Roham, 168201. London: Gingko Library, 2018.Google Scholar
Christensen, Darin, and Laitin, David D. African States since Independence: Order, Development, and Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gāhnāmeh-ye Panjāh Sāl-e Shāhanshāhi-ye Pahlavi. Paris: Soheil Publishers, 1985.Google Scholar
Gellar, Sheldon. Senegal: An African Nation between Islam and the West. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Karanjia, R.K. The Mind of a Monarch. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1977.Google Scholar
Keur Farah Pahlavi: Ville Nouvelle Industrielle Pour Le Gouvernement du Sénégal. Montréal: Moshe Safdie et Associes Architectes et Urbanistes, 1976.Google Scholar
Mbodji, Mohamed. “The Politics of Independence: 1960–1986.” In The Political Economy of Senegal under Structural Adjustment, ed. Delgado, Christopher L., and Jammeh, Sidi, 119126. New York: Praeger, 1991.Google Scholar
Milani, Abbas. The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 2000.Google Scholar
Murphy, David. “The Performance of Pan-Africanism: Staging the African Renaissance at the First World Festival of Negro Arts.” In The First World Festival of Negro Arts, Dakar 1966, ed. Murphy, David, 152. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Murphy, Diana, ed. Moshe Safdie 1. Victoria: Images Publishing Group, 2009.Google Scholar
Padilla, Fernando Camacho. “Las relaciones entre Latinoamérica e Irán durante la última década de la dinastía Pahleví.” Anuario de Historia de América Latina 56 (2019): 6696. doi: 10.15460/jbla.56.133CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rake, Alan. African Leaders: Guiding the New Millennium. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Samson, Peter, and Van Hook eds, Laurie. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E-6, Documents on Africa, 1973–1976. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 2006.Google Scholar
Schayegh, Cyrus. “Iran’s Global Long 1970s: An Empire Project, Civilisational Developmentism, and the Crisis of the Global North.” In The Age of Aryamehr: Late Pahlavi Iran and Its Global Entanglements, ed. Alvandi, Roham, 260289. London: Gingko Library, 2018.Google Scholar
Schraeder, Peter J. “Senegal’s Foreign Policy: Challenges of Democratization and Marginalization.” African Affairs 96 (1997): 485508. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007881CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schraeder, Peter J. “Cold War to Cold Peace: Explaining U.S.–French Competition in Francophone Africa.” Political Science Quarterly 115, no. 3 (2000): 395419. doi: 10.2307/2658125CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafā, Shojāʿ al-Din. “Shojāʿ al-Din Shafā az Zabān-e Khodash.” In Yādnāmeh-ye Shojāʿ al-Din Shafā, ed. Shafa, Claudine, 37113. Paris, 2013.Google Scholar
Skurnik, W.A.E. The Foreign Policy of Senegal. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Steele, Robert. “Pahlavi Iran on the Global Stage: The Shah’s 1971 Persepolis Celebrations.” In The Age of Aryamehr: Late Pahlavi Iran and Its Global Entanglements, ed. Alvandi, Roham, 110146. London: Gingko Library, 2018.Google Scholar
Thiam, Doudou. The Foreign Policy of African States: Ideological Bases, Present Realities, Future Prospects. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965.Google Scholar
Vaillant, Janet G. Black, French, and African: A Life of Léopold Sédar Senghor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zāhedi, Ardeshir. Khāterāt-e Ardeshir Zāhedi. Vol. 3. Bethesda, MD: Ibex Publishers, 2020.Google Scholar