"France is currently emerging from the history of Africa," Majed Nehme, French political scientist and editorial director of the French-language monthly 2A MAGAZINE, told Sputnik Africa, commenting on an open letter written by a group of French senators in which they challenge President of France Emmanuel Macron on the place and role of France in Africa.
"[Former French President] Nicolas Sarkozy, in a famous speech in Dakar, said that Africa has not entered history. At the time, it was a shock [...]. Now, we can return Sarkozy's sentence by saying that France is currently emerging from the history of Africa," he said.
Is France Reaping What It Sows?
The French senators "forget the origins of this African refusal of France which had its culmination in 2011, when France intervened, or it was the initiator of the aggression against Libya," adds the political analyst.
"Africans have never swallowed this aggression that broke an African country, which had an African policy, which was Africa, which wanted an African currency rather than the French franc," the scientist noted.
According to him, the reasons for the rejection of France by Africans are the "plundering of the continent, the contempt for African peoples, the destabilization of African countries", but the senators do not talk about it. However, relations between France and Africa must be fair and respectful of the independence of the African peoples.
In addition to Black Africa, France treats North Africa "with a little flippancy", according to him. The authors of the letter "believe that Algeria cannot criticize Tunisia, knowing that they were the ones who were at the origin of the Arab Spring that overthrew the Tunisian regime of Ben Ali".
"And twelve years later we see the result with a country whose economy is on the ground. They see very poorly the last visit of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to Russia which was a great success, as well as his visit to China. That is to say, even North Africa or the Maghreb countries are beginning to reject the French colonial spirit and colonial practices too," Nehme said.
Is Africa Friendly to France? 'Absurd,' Says Researcher
"Who is Africa friends with? With the corrupt regimes that France itself installed and who shared the plundering of African resources," he added.
As an example, Nehme elaborated that in two centuries of French colonial presence in Africa, there is very little infrastructure, actions for the development of Africa. For France, it was French dependencies. He recalled that it was the Soviet Union that had built the dam in Egypt, while "the West, including France, had refused at the time the idea of financing such an infrastructure without consideration".
"It is an indirect colonialism despite the independence, whereas China or the Soviet Union before had been involved in the African continent, they were real friends who had built infrastructures," the scientist said.
Sputnik's interlocutor explained that the return of Russia and China has helped by building roads, railways, dams, schools, all this, helping agriculture. According to Nehme, that's what it means to be friends, and it's not "plundering the uranium of Niger, the gold of Mali or the riches of Congo".
Barkhane. A Crushing Failure
The political analyst thinks that the Barkhane operation is a stinging defeat. However, the current French Minister of Defense, who refuted this total fiasco, adhered to the colonial French-African vision and showed himself a little blinded by ideology rather than reality, the reality is that France has been driven out of Mali, Burkina Faso, and soon it will be driven out of Niger, in Nehme's opinion.
"This is the result of the war against Libya, which has turned it into a vast boulevard for all currents, armed groups and terrorist groups. Then Barkhane failed to eradicate the terrorism that France itself had provoked," he said.
After the operation in Libya, crowds of Africans found themselves in misery and saw their country broken, the scientist recalled.
Dependent France?
After listing the French problems on the African continent, the senators call for the French vision of Africa to be redefined. But, as Sputnik's interlocutor underlined, they do not specify what this look is. Especially since France itself is no longer sovereign and independent, it depends, and it is a follower vis-à-vis the United States.
"How do you want a country that has lost its sovereignty to behave other than a watchdog of Western or American interests in Africa?! Moreover, the senators are not saying how...", he stressed.
Is Franco-African Partnership Conceivable?
The French political scientist believes that it is too late for Africa to collaborate again with France on new bases.
"To become a friend of Africa again, to become a credible partner of Africa, it is necessary that France regains its independence, that it leaves NATO, that it thinks of its own interests and not of wars [...] which in no way serve its interests," Nehme noted.
Russia is back, China is also here, "the African conscience and the desire for independence of the African peoples is again in the spotlight. So now it's too late for France," concluded the analyst.