Why France leaves Africa

The world's media is commenting on the attempted coup in Niger and the reaction of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to this military seizure of power from a democratically-elected government. There is a plethora of explanations, rationalisations and prevarications about the roles of the principals in dealing with this crisis, but little concentration on what is the fundamental root of this, and many previous, destabilisations in African political history. The five-ton elephant in the room is France and it colonial and neo-colonial policies. There are many theories being advanced about the situation and its possible outcomes but very little discussion about what almost every African man, woman and child knows-the burden of French colonial practices on their nations and the learned dependence which has inhibited African growth and prosperity. There is no solution to the problem of Francophone Africa which doesn't require the removal of French policies from the governance of these African states.

International Affairs, 2020

Science For All Publications, 2023

This academic article critically examines the potential for France to employ excessive force in its efforts to restore its interests in Africa following the political coups in Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The analysis delves into France's historical engagement in the region and its strategic interests in Africa. The paper evaluates the implications of excessive force on regional dynamics, international relations, and France's image as a global actor. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, this research aims to provide an informed assessment of the risks and challenges associated with such military interventions. The article concludes with recommendations for a balanced and responsible approach that aligns with the principles of international law and promotes sustainable stability in the affected African nations. The recent political coups in Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have significantly impacted regional stability and posed challenges to France's strategic interests in Africa. This article critically analyzes the possibilities of France resorting to the use of excessive force to restore its interests in these African nations.

The role of French security policy and cooperation in Africa has long been recognized as a critically important factor in African politics and international relations. The newest form of security cooperation, a trend which merges security and development and which is actively promoted by other major Western powers, adds to our understanding of this broader trend in African relations with the industrialized North. This book investigates whether French involvement in Africa is really in the interest of Africans, or whether French intervention continues to deny African political freedom and to sustain their current social, economic and political conditions. It illustrates how policies portrayed as promoting stability and development can in fact be factors of instability and reproductive mechanisms of systems of dependency, domination and subordination. Providing complex ideas in a clear and pointed manner, France and the New Imperialism is a sophisticated understanding of critical security studies. Contents: French security policy in sub-Saharan Africa; The symbolic state, security, and symbolic France; Colonizing the political in Africa: underwriting French hegemony and proscribing dissent; Authorizing hegemony: French power and military cooperation, 1960–1994; Into the 21st century: liberal war, global governance, and French military cooperation; Making (in)security: the use of force to master violence; Complicity in genocide: France in Rwanda; Hegemonic struggles, hegemonic restructuring: France in Côte d' Ivoire; Conclusion: France and the new imperialism Reviews: 'A valuable and provocative book, combining insightful deployment of critical theoretical ideas on security and the symbolic state with historically and empirically rich analyses of French engagements with Africa. The author successfully demonstrates both the dynamism and the powerful continuities that mark Franco-African relations, to the detriment of most Africans within the ambit of this deeply rooted “special relationship”.' David Black, Dalhousie University, Canada '…this book raises a number of fascinating questions and opens a necessary and long delayed debate about France's security policy in Africa…' Journal of Contemporary European Studies '…the book succeeds in showing where the Franco-African complex has come from and how it has endured, rendering it open to further scrutiny. It also forms a useful guide to how such issues might be investigated in other contexts.' African Affairs

Academia Letters, 2022

This paper proposes to briefly explain why the gradual decline and probable end of historyof France’s traditional policy in Africa in this new era of globalization. The gradual declineof France’s traditional policy in Africa is simply understood as the progressive decadence,in the path towards the end of history of France’s evolving neo-colonial policy—of meta-morphic French neo-colonialism, on the African continent and in its sub-Saharan bosom inparticular, passing from libertinage and coercive prescriber gendarme to “peacekeeper” andreserves; from collusion to the pronounced appearance of arm-wrestling and criticism; fromtacit legitimacy to pronounced fed up; switches to the progressive breakdown of privileges, monopolies and abusive dominations; and from the open sky to hypocrisy, taboo and sacri-lege. By using Central African Republic and Mali as specific cases of concrete illustrations, the results that emerge from this paper show that the rise of soft engagement and the decline of hard engagement, the pronounced exposureof win-lose results of the said policy, the rise of new anti-neocolonial public opinion and the retreat of French power on the African continentand in its sub-Saharan bosom in particular are the main root causes of the gradual decline of France’s traditional policy in Africa and towards its probable end of history in this new eraof globalization. To conclude, this paper has noted the need for further in-depth studies in thesense of identifying and seeing the results and implications of the decline of the said policy in this new era of globalization.

2021

In pursuit of national interests powerful countries have interfered in domestic affairs of other weaker countries and often resorted to military action to meet those ends. These are tall claims and have potentially difficult repercussions for those behind these machinations if proved. Nevertheless, before those responsible for the mayhem are brought to the books in any foreseeable future, it might be necessary to understand under what circumstances such actions may become ‘rational’ and how these actions are ‘rationalised’ to those in stupor. This understanding would contextualise such phenomenon to develop an informed opinion on these cases. In this regard, this study may be considered as an exercise to explore the relevant contemporary events to this end.

ERIS – European Review of International Studies

In contradiction with the promise to break with its post-colonial past and some attempts to change its foreign policy, France has reengaged itself massively in African crises. The military interventions launched in Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Central African Republic seem to define a new French interventionist policy South of the Sahara. Based upon extensive surveys conducted in Côte d'Ivoire among young pro-Gbagbo militants, this article tries to interpret this new stance from below. It contends that the nationalist and anti-colonial mobilisations that took place in the country were not only instrumental in local power bargaining. They were (and are still) a powerful leverage for generational emancipation and reflect some conflicts of subjectification which will be key in the evolution of Franco-African relations in the future.

This chapter raises the following questions: What is specific about the French military intervention in Mali? In particular, how can we explain the fact that, unlike previous French interventions in Africa (most recently in Cote d’Ivoire, Chad or Libya), Serval has very seldom been accused of neo-colonialism internationally, and popular in Mali? The argument presented is two-fold. On the first hand, it argues that this intervention cannot be approached only through the lens of françafrique. On the other hand, however, the chapter claims that Serval can and must be understood from a post-colonial perspective.