French Abyssinia?
''A Frenchman by the name of Rochet d'Hericourt happened to be one of the earliest Europeans who showed up at the court of Menelik's grandfather (sahle selassie) in the 1840's. Like the Italians of later decades, Rochet considered different alternatives that would enable him to realize ''French Abyssinia.''
He could initially arm Sahle Selassie to expand his kingdom only to subsequently overthrow and replace him as the ruler of a large swathe of Africa.
Alternatively, according to Rubenson (1976: 151), he was even prepared to unite and use the Oromo tribes and thus ''by raising 200,000 Oromo troops to unite his French Abyssinia with the French possessions on the Senegal river''.
[The Horn of Africa as Common Homeland: The State and Self-Determination in the Era of Heightened Globalization Paperback – October 28, 2004
by Leenco Lata]
