Africa Must Stop Using France As An Excuse For Not Taking Any Responsibility

–OpEd–

DAKAR — As the students at the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, who complained to Emmanuel Macron in 2017 about the malfunctioning air-conditioning, a famous Cameroonian activist recently distinguished herself with a humorous display or — who knows — the most incisive political analysis of the century.

A self-proclaimed sovereignist on social networks, she claims that Macky Sall’s postponement of Senegal’s presidential elections was aimed at enabling opposition politician Karim Wade, designated as Sall’s successor — according to her! — by Emmanuel Macron, to take part in the election.

Such an allegation — which would have been considered a suitable joke for a humor festival such as the international “Marrakech du Rire” — is taken seriously in the virtual Africa of social networks. While such bubble is not to be confused with the real continent, it is clear that many virtual influencers attribute the responsibility of every political event to France.

Given the defeat of the Malian army in Kidal in March 2012 and the prolonged presence of foreign forces in the country, some saw in this the hand of France, accused of plundering Malian gold, even though northern Mali is, until further notice, deprived of this precious metal. In Chad, the rehabilitation of Succès Masra was linked to the underground networks of the Quai d’Orsay, despite mediation being largely led by Arab and African countries, with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) playing a crucial role.

Interestingly, in the DRC itself, the French and U.S. embassies were singled out for “non-assistance to a country in danger” by the public opinion, which seemed to spare the state from any questioning of its action plan for peace in Kivu. In Gabon, during the military takeover in August 2023 by General Brice Oligui Nguéma, attention focused more on his interactions with the French ambassador than on his political program.

We Africans don’t take responsibility

It seems that we Africans can neither elect a president nor orchestrate a coup on our own. This way of thinking denies us any responsibility for our own history. Instead of analyzing crises globally, identifying the interests at stake and the root causes, we are simply obsessively tracking down the slightest trace of foreign influence, particularly French.

This fixation on external influences may reflect a trauma.

It is true that all countries are subject to foreign influences, more or less direct, which manifest themselves in trade, foreign direct investment, remittances and so on.

Yet in the case of African countries, this fixation on external influences may reflect a trauma, a haunting of historical figures such as Jacques Foccart, the co-ordinator of President Charles de Gaulle’s African policy, and the mercenary Bob Denard. In a way, the finger-pointing reflects a certain denial of responsibility in the analysis of political crises.

Facing the Sahel Brexit

Are we such big children, eternally minors — as the Belgian comic Tintin in the Congo suggested — that we consider the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the main engine of regional integration, which is working relatively well, as a colonial instrument? It is no tribute to the ideals of the founding fathers to think that opposition to military takeovers is contrary to African aspirations.

Since the beginning of the latest crisis in the West African community, known as the “Sahel Brexit“, with Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso quitting ECOWAS, people have been determined to see France’s hand in it — ignoring the fact that it is above all a matter of a transition timetable that the military refuse to respect.

As if the ECOWAS additional protocol on human rights and democracy had been signed in Paris in the early 2000s, and not in Dakar. As if free movement and the right of establishment in this economic and political area — the foundations of ECOWAS — were not an advantage offered to citizens in search of opportunities.