In the spotlight: the real-false facelift of the Africa-France summit
Audio 05:12
In Montpellier, the city's trams are displayed in the colors of the Africa-France summit on October 8, 2021. © RFI / Paulina Zidi
By: Norbert Navarro
4 min
Advertising
The Africa-France high mass has had its facelift. And this is indeed a first, the club of heads of state is closed, welcome to that of civil society. “
Format
” praised by
Wakat Sera
. Burkinabè daily in which Armand Kinda director general of the online newspaper
Minute.bf
, ensures that "
African heads of state, especially those of French-speaking Africa, are considered by many young people as sub-prefects of the Gauls
", while Aboubacar Derme, journalist with
L'Observateur Paalga
, approves the change in format of the Africa-France summit because “
youth constitute the overwhelming majority of African populations, with young people increasingly demanding in terms of collaboration between States,
”he told
Wakat Sera.
The Paalga Observer
, exactly.
This other renowned Ouagalan daily underlines that beyond the new format, the "content" of this Africa-France summit has also taken "
a big wash of laundry
", far from the
usual "
political jamboree
" of heads of state who are like "
godchildren
" some of whom are in a hurry to meet "
their French godfathers and receive instructions
"
The Paalga Observer
also points to the “
renewed denunciation of economic and monetary relations considered predatory that the former metropolis maintains with certain countries of the continent, in particular those of the franc zone.
This denunciation is carried by the youth and the associations of the civil society ”
, he underlines,“
with the “overthrown summit” of Montpellier, Adonis Macron is therefore going to conquer this Africa of the peoples ”.
But beware, warns
L'Observateur Paalga, "as long as the Gallic Rooster, behind the appearances of a charming Adonis, takes on the air of a predator of the sub-Saharan farmyard, he will have to fear the revolt of his bees, sooner or later. or later
”.
No yellow vests in Lambaréné
But new-look summit or not, in the African press, some African intellectuals persist and sign.
And criticize him sharply.
This is for example the case of the Chadian writer Koulsy Lamko, who, in the Senegalese daily
EnQuête, "
spits his truths
"
,
at the same time, against the Summit, Emmanuel Macron, but also
"
those he considers as accomplices of the French President
"and that he treats of
"
substitute buffoons
"
or even
"
intelligent puppets, those of the era of (new technologies) and artificial intelligence!"
".
Present at the
“
counter-summit
” organized in Dakar by African intellectuals brought together by CORA, the Collective for African Renewal, Koulsy Lamko has only one war cry, which he launches in
EnQuête
:
“
Ya basta! summits on Africa, outside the villages and towns of the continent: Africa! (…) We have other fish to fry than to be interested in one more summit and of which we know in all soul and conscience that the meeting will be mountain to give birth to a mouse (…) A sound and light show to sell the continent at the auction of neoliberal globalism!
», Says Koulsy Lamko. In a flowery style; and in the Senegalese daily
EnQuête
.
And this Chadian writer decidedly very inspiring to imagine "
that the sons Bongo or Eyadema or Deby organize in Lambaréné in Aneho or Sarh, a France-Africa summit where the yellow vests would present a plan for restructuring decadent France.
We would feel our guts with laughter!
He told
EnQuête
.
Must say…
Macron the African facing the youthful peril
In the French press this morning, just as much interest in this unprecedented summit as in the African press. Believing "
at its height
" anti-French sentiment in Africa, the newspaper
L'Humanité
opens its columns to Aminata Traoré. For the Malian writer and politician, there is no doubt, “
governing as governed (Emmanuel Macron) despises us
”. But beware, warns Aminata Traoré in the French Communist daily, "
for Malian youth, between Russia and France, there is no photo
"!
Being reminded that it was Achille Mbembe who agreed to prepare for this summit in Montpellier, the Cameroonian political scientist assures in
Le Figaro
that he is not a “
nice catch
” from the Elysee and specifies that he said yes before all "out of
intellectual curiosity
" but also "
to prevent this from being a mere publicity stunt
", completes
Le Figaro.
There remains the economic context of the Franco-African relationship, and the newspaper
Les Echos
soberly paints the picture.
With sales of 30 billion euros on average over 2018-2020, France's commercial positions in Africa are "
crumbling
" against those of China and its 111 billion euros in turnover on the same. period, points the economic daily.
Which newspaper imagines that, "
if the (African) continent were a single country, it would only be (the) sixth customer
" of France (and everything here is nested in the adverb "only").
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Africa-France Summit
Newspaper