Foreign Policy: Is this the end of France in Africa?

Protesters against the French presence in Niger, one of them carrying a sign reading “Leave, France” (Getty)

Former French President Jacques Chirac once said, “Don’t forget one thing, which is that a large part of the money we have comes, precisely, from the exploitation of Africa over the centuries, so we need a little common sense. I didn’t say generosity, but "Common sense and justice to give to Africans what we took from them is necessary if we are to avoid severe unrest and difficulties, with all the political consequences that this will bring in the near future."

These sentences serve as an introduction to an article by Howard W. French - in his column - in Foreign Policy magazine, where he said that there is a noticeable uprising against French influence underway in the Sahel region, which is one of the African regions in which French hegemony has been more comprehensive over the past decades, indicating that this Growing dissatisfaction with French neo-colonialism, spurring a violent backlash against Paris throughout West Africa.

Before going into the details, the writer returns to the beginning of the story, when General Charles de Gaulle in 1958, after returning to power, set off on a tour of his country’s colonies in sub-Saharan Africa, presenting them with a plan to join a new type of French “society.”

Guinea chapter

The general's plan requires Paris to continue to control what it called "state services", which include: defence, monetary matters and customs, as well as the media and communications. The new semi-limited autonomy allows African countries to manage their internal affairs and bear the costs, which France had largely borne. .

As for the formula in which the plan was presented, under a veil of chivalry - as the writer says - it is a studied referendum, which the African colonies are free to accept or reject. There will be no discussion, but merely a vote of approval or rejection, and any colony that rejects the proposal will face secession from France. "With all the consequences that arise from that."

When Guinea rejected the plan, de Gaulle became angry, who canceled a scheduled dinner with the country's leader, Ahmed Sékou Toure, and declined his invitation to travel on his presidential plane to neighboring Senegal the next day.

After de Gaulle returned to Paris, he ordered the immediate withdrawal of thousands of French civil servants, who ran the colony's bureaucracy and staffed its clinics and schools.

Before returning home, many French workers engaged in an orgy of petty destruction, smashing furniture, official records, equipment, and even light bulbs.

If the separation of Guinea was one of the most famous events in the shameful history of French colonial rule and its dominance over large parts of West and Central Africa, it was only a small part of a very long story, especially since Guinea was the site of a fierce campaign launched by Paris to subjugate the local political rulers and control the country. At the beginning of colonization, in order to control gold and other natural resources.

Although France was not the only European country that ruled Africans, its history is unique in terms of its continuity, geographical spread, and ability to adapt, but the struggle for independence in Algeria, which was then a large French settler colony in North Africa, was the cause of the overthrow of the Republic. French Fourth, and threatened civil war in the heart of Europe in 1958, the same year in which de Gaulle's tour in the sub-Saharan region took place.

Uprising

In the wake of the events in Guinea and Algeria, when other black African figures began to demand greater autonomy than de Gaulle had envisioned, for complete independence, bad things began to happen to them. A Cameroonian anti-colonial figure that few remember was assassinated: Felix Rolland. Mumier was poisoned by French agents with radioactive thallium in Geneva in 1960.

Today, after more than 60 years, there is a noticeable uprising - as the writer says - against French influence in the Sahel region, where the leaders of 3 countries in this semi-arid region: Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, one after another, rose up against French influence in West Africa and took action. To limit or eliminate the presence of French soldiers, companies and diplomats in their countries.

Leaders have blamed Paris for a range of problems, from France's long-running, ineffective and often destructive campaign to contain the spread of Islamist insurgency in the Sahel, to interference in their domestic politics, to profiteering from terrorism and unequal economic relations. Blatantly.

In light of the strong rejection by France, these three landlocked countries, which are classified among the poorest countries in the world, welcomed a greater role for Russia, whether in helping to strengthen their internal security or in extracting mineral wealth.

Such as: gold and uranium in its territories, hinting at ending cooperation with France regarding controlling the flow of African migration north through the Sahara towards Europe.

The three countries discussed leaving the monetary union and the African franc currency that France established before independence, as a means to support French exports in the region, and to perpetuate Paris’s dominance in terms of depositing foreign reserves with the French treasury. They are even discussing the creation of a new coastal currency to replace the African franc.

Coastal challenges

The President of Niger, Abderrahmane Tiani, went on to demand that France pay compensation to African countries for years of what he likened to plunder, and the President of neighboring Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, pledged to never allow his country to be dominated by Europeans again, which sparked the imagination of millions of Africans living in colonies. Former French.

Although France once supervised the construction of huge infrastructure projects in its colonies;

Such as: major ports, railways, and highways - even if they finally conceded this to China - conducting a survey of sub-Saharan Africa leaves the impression that the former French colonies generally lag behind their counterparts, the former British colony, in economic development, democratic governance, and political stability.

Perhaps another challenge for the leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will be more influential over time, as they challenge other French- and English-speaking African countries by tearing down the barriers that obstructively divide them, to achieve the African Union’s dream of unity.

The writer concluded that the beginning of achieving greater prosperity and well-being that all Africans long for will not come until divisions are eradicated, and anger towards France will not be useful unless it turns into an incentive for greater ability on the part of Africans to build their own regional currencies, railways and roads. Rapid, and the formation of political and economic unions on more than just paper.

Source: Foreign Policy