Wednesday, November 8, 2023, French Parliament deputies close to French president Emmanuel Macron sharply criticized his policy in Africa.
Bruno Fuchs of the Democratic Movement and Michèle Tabarot of Les Républicains party, presented a 175-page document that summarizes the hostility and hatred of Africans towards France. Though Macron’s presidency has a lot to do with it, the document goes twenty years earlier to show the reasons of the resentment.
African Grievances against France
To draft this elaborate document, the two French elected officials carried meaningful investigations on the continent. They conducted interviews with African heads of state, French and African diplomats and even soldiers. The idea here was to understand why Paris went from Africa’s privileged partner to its number one enemy.
The results are clear. The French actions in Africa do not mirror any democratic logic. Although portraying itself as being democratically irreproachable, France has endorsed all African leaders who clearly violated their countries constitutions. This is particularly true in Chad, where Macron was seen giving his anointing to Mahamat Déby Itno, son of the late president Idriss Déby Itno, who has never been elected. Thus enabling dictature and autocracy in Chad.
Literally all governments unwanted and rejected by African populations are supported by France. France opposes fiercely any government in place that doesn’t serve its interests. Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger are just few examples. The populations therefore understood that France cares little about African aspirations but rather guard its interests by maintaining tyrants in power.
The elected officials therefore noted that: “Not putting an end to this policy of double standards means continuing to fuel skepticism and rejection”.
Towards a Favorable France in Africa?
It is clear that France cannot come to grips with losing Africa completely. A large part of the French economy is based on raw materials present in Africa and the exploitation of the CFA Franc, a colonial currency forced upon Francophone African countries. The idea is therefore to court Africa again and regain its trust.
To do this, proposals to reform public development assistance, to grant more donations and issuing fewer loans, to put the new Africa in French school curricula, to institute a specific visa for French-speaking African countries and above all, to stop imposing the LGBT vision in an Africa which still criminalizes it, were put on the table.
It is important to clarify that all these proposals and stratagems contribute to the same thing, the continued exploitation of Africa in a gentile form. As anti-French sentiment is already present in many Africans, it is important that it remains there, that the feeling multiplies, and that it touches more hearts so that Africa is definitively freed from France.
