-Analytics-
PARIS — One cannot accuse Emmanuel Macron of being unaware that Africa has changed — and that France’s approach to the continent must change too. As early as his election in 2017, the French President expressed this sentiment in a speech to students in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, and reiterated it last year at the Africa-France Summit in Montpellier, where he once again spoke to the younger generation.
He has finally outlined the contours of a new policy that breaks with a colonial past, which is still not forgotten, before embarking on an important trip to Central Africa (Gabon, Angola, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo) on Wednesday.
The problem is that changing direction is particularly difficult when burdened with the weight of colonial and post-colonial history, as well as France’s misguided old reflexes.
Furthermore, this change is happening at a time when Paris is on the defensive: the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso and the information war being waged by Russia are just the visible part of the problem.
The underlying unease runs much deeper.
Existential stakes
To address this, Macron called on Monday for a change in mindset, with a strong conviction that Africa is the future of France and Europe. He warns against allowing the growing chorus that speaks of a divide between the North and the so-called Global South to take hold, especially in light of the war in Ukraine.
For the French President, the stakes are existential. “For a country like ours, it would be terrible,” he says, if we were unable to find our place on a continent that is both our neighbor and one of the coming great centers of the 21st century in terms of demography, economy, and culture.”
Decades of such practices cannot simply be undone by a mere announcement.
But challenges remain, starting with the need to convince people that French policy has truly changed. “France no longer has a ‘pré carré’,” he says, referring to the concept of Françafrique, a zone of influence where France made and unmade regimes.
Decades of such practices cannot simply be undone by a mere announcement.
France’s African identity
Macron announced Monday a profound reform of the French military approach in Africa, which will be one of the tests of the new approach.
France can count on three major assets in this “return” to Africa. The first is its strong African diaspora in France, which Emmanuel Macron wants to use as a bridge, defying national reluctance. “We must embrace France’s African identity,” he repeats, a statement that will undoubtedly rub some people the wrong way.
The second is the Europeanization of African policy, and the President is taking two European Commissioners on his trip. Europe helps to temper the knee-jerk reaction to France, and allows for a critical mass for infrastructure projects, for example.
The third is more of a wish than a reality: that French society reinvests in Africa, in business, cultural circles, and civil society. This is not the case today, and it is a national weakness. A new approach to Africa will be possible if, paradoxically, it escapes the state and its constraints. This is a huge challenge.
