By RFIPosted on 08-11-2019Modified on 08-11-2019 at 15:03

The shock wave of the fall of the Berlin Wall is also felt in Africa since the end of 1989. These upheavals in the GDR and more generally in the Eastern countries have been followed on the African continent.

They have been closely monitored because in the late 1980s the crisis took hold in many African countries, largely because of their economic difficulties and the difficulties of functioning of the state. Problem of corruption, unpaid wages. Social malaise is growing. And so the upheavals in the East feed the reflection of the actors of these disputes and create a hope for change.

This is particularly the case in Benin, which is anchored in the Soviet bloc. At the time, the country applies a socialist model, but it does not work. Beninois are ironic about "laxism-Beninism". On several occasions in 1989, workers took to the streets and began to demand a return to democracy. In this context of turmoil, the announcement of the fall of the wall, the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia, the arrest, conviction and execution of Nicolae Ceaucescu in Romania also put additional pressure on Beninese power. On December 7, 1989, President Mathieu Kérékou announced two things: the official abandonment of Marxism-Leninism and the convening of a national conference.

" The east wind shakes the coconut trees "

The contestation is also developing countries that are not allied to the Eastern Bloc, like Gabon Omar Bongo and this as early as January. It is the students who start the movement, but it will be transformed into a broader social front. Contestation, also, in Niger of General Ali Saibou with school demonstrations in February. The Ivory Coast of Houphouët Boigny in turn knows in March 1990 a wave of demonstrations.

Each time, the dynamics are first and foremost local, but in western governments the idea is that the wind of freedom that has blown over the East will also blow on Africa. French Minister for Cooperation Jacques Pelletier is credited with a formula that has remained: " The east wind is shaking coconut palms. "

Democratic opening

In response, on June 20, 1990, at the 16th Conference of Heads of State of Africa and France in La Baule, French President François Mitterrand delivered a landmark speech. A message addressed to African leaders in which he associates France's support for the steps taken by the states in matters of democracy and good governance. " We have to talk about democracy," says François Mitterrand to his African hosts. It is a universal principle which has just appeared to the peoples of Central Europe as absolute evidence. "

The following year, the Mitterrandian speech on the subject will nuance La Baule. But in June 1990, in any case, François Mitterrand sends this signal to African states. A signal that has largely contributed to real political adjustments or facades made by some countries.

More generally, the collapse of the communist bloc marks a change in the place that African countries will occupy in world geopolitics. During the Cold War, the struggle against communist expansion had conditioned Western alliances with various unworthy or authoritarian regimes. The loss of this Soviet enemy will make these alliances less essential and thus force some countries to open or pretend to open up their political system. This is why, for example, in Zaire, President Mobutu announced in April 1990, his eyes clouded with tears, the end of the single party.

    On the same subject

    30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, "defending democracy is a duty"

    Thirty years since the fall of the wall: Berlin begins a week of commemorations

    When the moribund RDA celebrated its last birthday

    comments