Monday, December 4, 2023
 
 

France’s policies in Africa diminish its influence; inevitably opening the door to Russia & China

- Advertisement -
In a recent story titled “How Russia and China are trying to drive France out of Africa“, what was not lost on the reader is the simple fact that Paris’ waning influence in Africa is almost entirely self-inflicted.
The fact that Africa has once again become a battleground for a great-power chess match is not lost on anyone. Military bases, arms deals, huge investments and diplomatic charm offensives are all part of what could be called a “Neo-Scramble for Africa.
The primary players in this new round of geopolitical gamesmanship are China and Russia against essentially everyone else who has ever had an interest in the African continent. France and the UK are special cases in this regard as both, along with Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium, were the foremost colonial powers in Africa.
While the latter allowed the independence movements in their respective colonies to flourish and sought close relationships with the new governments, France had an arrangement that could be best described as a “limited liberation”.
This has now come home to roost.
For most of its colonial experience in Africa, Polynesia, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, France viewed its imperial possessions as literal extensions of itself. This erroneous perception was reinforced by the strict colonial policies of assimilation and association, both of which became the mainstream way France governed its empire
The role the colonies played in the Free France Movement during the Second World War also consolidated the idea of the indispensability of French possessions in Africa. The African and Asian colonies greatly depleted their human and natural resources to support the Free French as they fought against Nazi Germany’s four-year occupation of France.
In the years after World War II – when Africa craved independence, – France, under the provisional government of the Free France Movement’s leader – Charles de Gaulle – re-evaluated the benefits of retaining its vast colonial empire. The French were reluctant to set them free. Having already assimilated hundreds of  African politicians into the French political system, Paris had another option – limited independence within the Francophone community.
Admittedly, the French had given the African colonies a choice concerning independence by referenda, however, the conditions attached made any negative response to the parameters that were arbitrarily imposed by Paris very costly. When Guinea refused to abide by the conditions, it was severely punished by France; forced to turn to fellow West African nation Ghana, which stepped in to support Guinea with £10 million in aid.
Protestors in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou wave Russian Federation flags atop a seized armored vehicle belonging to the UN peace keeping mission in the French-speaking West African nation. The demonstrators are cheering the success of a Kremlin-backed coup that took place in October 2022.
France’s inability to have a mild reaction to its conditions for independence was on full display in Algeria, which fought one of the bloodiest national liberation wars in Africa in the years immediately after the Second World War.
For those newly-independent countries that joined the Francophone community, it meant that France heavily dominated their post-independence economies. The French have retained some or full control of the natural resources in the individual states, continued to be overly influential in foreign policy decisions and have stationed thousands of military personnel at permanent bases in some African nations.
France’s complicity in the heavy-handed rule by some African dictators cannot be overlooked. Growing indignation in Francophone Africa against French policies towards the continent is not limited to states ruled by juntas. Democratic nations such as Senegal have also seen their citizens protesting France’s continued presence in Africa.
France’s inability to recalibrate its policies towards Francophone Africa is pushing many of those countries into Russia and China’s embrace. Sadly, the only beneficiaries, in this case, are the autocratic regimes in Moscow and Beijing.
- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

An international relations and security expert who previously served as a special assistant to the Vice President of Ghana and a research assistant to the office of the President. He is currently a senior analyst for the Conflict Research Consortium for Africa.

Latest

Don't miss

Africa will watch the DRC’s elections with bated interest

2023 and 2024 are going to be busy years...

Ukraine, Middle East will dominate Cameron’s UK foreign policy agenda

David Cameron, who was made Foreign Secretary in a...

What will it take to prevent a Gaza reconstruction fiasco?

Let us be unequivocal about the current war between...

Ukraine’s persecuted mayor

Lest it be forgotten, the major thematic issue in...

Africa will watch the DRC’s elections with bated interest

2023 and 2024 are going to be busy years as far as elections in Africa are concerned. About two dozen elections will occur in...

Ukraine, Middle East will dominate Cameron’s UK foreign policy agenda

David Cameron, who was made Foreign Secretary in a surprise move by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during his cabinet reshuffle on November 13, is...

What will it take to prevent a Gaza reconstruction fiasco?

Let us be unequivocal about the current war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas - the latter declared this war on Israeli...

Ukraine’s persecuted mayor

Lest it be forgotten, the major thematic issue in post-Maidan and pre-war Ukraine was, and continues to be, the transformation of Ukrainian society along...

Cameron’s return as Foreign Secretary raises UK’s international profile

David Cameron, who was made foreign secretary in a surprise move by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during his cabinet reshuffle on November 13, brings...

Russia’s powerful economic levers over Armenia

Armenia's relations with its strategic partner Russia are getting worse and worse and its leaders seem to desire a shift in geopolitical orientation towards the West....

Economy Minister says Kazakhstan to expand investment and diversify trade with Europe

Kazakhstan’s Minister of National Economy, Alibek Kuantyrov, spoke to NE Global in an exclusive interview about his country's relations with Europe, Astana's economic partners,...

New US actions against corruption and Russian malign influence in the Western Balkans

On November 16, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known by its acronym OFAC, designated eight individuals and six...