Review: Atlas of the French Overseas Departments. IV: French Guiana

Summary

This review examines the fourth volume of a series on French overseas departments, the *Atlas de la Guyane*, which stands out from its predecessors due to its co‑production by CEGET and ORSTOM and its focus on a territory that, despite being twenty times the size of an average metropolitan department, remains an economic and demographic anomaly. French Guiana is portrayed as a perennial failure: sparsely populated, lacking any autonomous economic base, and sustained almost entirely by public transfers. The atlas, described as a true encyclopedia of the region, systematically documents the causes and manifestations of this underdevelopment across geographical, historical, and social dimensions. The review highlights the semi‑official nature of the publication, which may preclude fully probing sensitive questions—such as the role of a missing local entrepreneurial class or the legacy of slavery—but nonetheless acknowledges the atlas’s remarkable scholarly achievement. Contributions from specialists in geography, history, and anthropology, notably the analysis of French Guianese Creole identity, are singled out for praise. Minor criticisms include the ambiguous official name of the entity (“Guyane” vs. “Guyane française”), the omission of the recent border agreement with Surinam that extended the department’s territory, and the absence of the country’s highest point (Mont Bellevue de l’Inini) on the relief map. The review concludes that, despite these details, the atlas is a magnificent testament to French geographical and historical scholarship on a small but enigmatic corner of the world, and it anticipates future editions that will address current development hopes and their outcomes.