Oppressed African Peoples No Longer Want Western Domination, Pan-Africanist Says

African peoples, previously oppressed by the West, no longer want Western domination, president of the Black African Defense League, an international antiracist organization for the defense of the rights of Africans and Afro-descendants, Egountchi Behanzin, told Sputnik Africa, commenting on France's withdrawal from the African continent as Paris began evacuating its troops from Senegal.

Anti-Françafrique and anti-neocolonialist rallies are stirring in Africa as people realize that the West and France have not abandoned their "negrophobic, supremacist, racist, and imperialist reflexes," the activist noted.

"Sovereign nations no longer want this cooperation because the West is not cooperating with Africa. It imposes its paradigm, its dogmas, what it calls its civilization, and it brings nothing to the people," he explained.

According to the expert, a part of the conscious population in Africa understood that "it is suicidal" to continue obeying the West in its neocolonial bid.

"Young people have come out, young people are motivated to decapitate not only the Françafrique, but also all the 'internal colonizers' who participate in and enable this continuation of neocolonialism in our countries," the speaker explained.

However, the withdrawal of French troops, as in the Sahel, is unlikely to put an end to looting and neocolonial policies, according to the activist.

"The West, France in particular, is reorganizing, and the plundering continues. The West is greedy to brutally poach Africa's raw materials and natural resources," the Pan-Africanist emphasized.

Moreover, there has never been any genuine cooperation or "partnership" between the West and Africa, as the West is only falsely talking about cooperation, Behanzin argued.

"There can be no partnership or cooperation between the colonizer and the colonized, between the one who dominates and the one who is dominated. Africa has never invited the West to come to Africa. The West imposed itself with weapons, with colonization, with wars, by plundering, and through genocide," he explained.

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To say that there is cooperation between the West and Africa would mean ignoring the unforgivable crimes against humanity that the West is inflicting on African populations by plundering their resources, the speaker emphasized.

Meanwhile, the withdrawal of French troops from Senegal and Chad means the return of freedom, the president of the Black African Defense League said.

"With the presence of the French army, you know that France intimidates its [Africa's] governments, carries out coups d'état, imposes a colonial, monetary and security policy and, above all, prevents these countries from building an independent sovereign army. Because France's objective is to prevent these countries' military sovereignty by imposing itself," the activist pointed out.

Abandoning the concept of Françafrique would also make it possible to choose partnerships, whether with Russia or China, and to pursue a policy towards the Global South without being pressured, the Pan-Africanist also noted.

"There will be no future for Françafrique between France and Africa. It's been centuries of oppression, plundering, exploitation, and colonization. It's not in 2025, when people have woken up and want a paradigm shift," Behanzin said, adding that "Africans don't want change with France. What Africans want is a pure and simple end to this colonial policy."