Review: Atlas of the French overseas departments. IV: French Guiana

Summary

Jean-Claude Nardin reviews the 1979 fourth volume of the Atlas des départements français d’outre-mer, La Guyane, comprising 88 pages and 36 color map sheets. He expects the series to end with this volume. Produced jointly by CEGET and ORSTOM under Marc Boyé and Gérard Brasseur, it benefited from ORSTOM's strong local presence and Brasseur's scientific co-direction. Nardin calls it an encyclopedia of French Guiana, documenting the territory's persistent failures of settlement and development despite its large area. He questions whether it explains these failures as clearly as Jean Hurault's Français et Indiens de Guyane (1972), suggesting that its semi-official character may limit questions about the absence or disappearance of a Béké class. Historical agricultural examples and colonial correspondence underpin his discussion of economic resources and possible lack of local initiative; he also quotes the atlas's description of an economy sustained almost entirely by public transfers. His overall assessment is strongly favorable: he praises the atlas's geographical and historical scholarship, including Marie-José Jolivet's analysis of Guianese Creole society. He closes by questioning the official territorial name, regretting the absence of discussion of a border agreement with Surinam, and noting the apparent omission of Mont Bellevue de l'Inini (851 m) from the relief map, although it appears in the text. He hopes a future edition will add the name and reassess the development prospects left open in this volume.