What you are describing is radicalization. People who are doing fine don't get easily radicalized. Why are they being radicalized then? Because they are not doing fine. Why are they not doing fine? Because of the colonial legacy and France supporting the status quo by propping up corrupt oligarchs/dictators in many parts of Francophone Africa.
By instantly jumping to Russia/Wagner you are merely assisting radicalization by further antagonizing Africans. The USA tried to pin everything that went wrong since 2016 on Russia, did it fix anything? Look at any poll for 2024 and you shall have your answer.
> I think that this article is diffusing "propaganda
It is not. And there is legitimate a reason for that: France's continuous economic influence in Africa, through economic exploitation and military presence[1], which is creating this anti-french sentiment. The same influence that it contests from other countries now that they are expanding theirs.
France is the number 1 reason for political instability in Africa. They have supported, armed and financed african dictators for generations.
France put itself in the 'opposition of african prosperity' position.
Random examples:
- Destroyed Lybia and refused to be held responsible. The US had the decency (?) to at least spend a 100 billions trying to repair Irak and Afghanistan. [1]
- Supporting Paul Biya [2], Ali Bongo and his father before him[3] , Idriss Deby [4] and his father before him, Faure Gnassingbe [5] and his father before him, Sassou Nguesso [6] is still terrorizing Congo... I can go on and on from 1949 to 2023.
- The currency of African countries is still printed and controlled by France [7]. France forces this countries to deposit half their money in French Treasurery. France industries hugely benefits from buying raw materials with a currency they control. African currencies are forced to be converted to Euro first, then to another one for exchanges.
- France routinely validates and congratulates Dictators after `winning` sham elections [8].
I fairly do not have a single good thing to say about the presence of France in Africa. France routinely lies about 'investing' in Africa. Where is the last power plant, hospital, or school built or invested in by France? In 10 years, we've seen roads, power plants, ports, airports, schools, universities from China, Turkey, Lebanon and even Russia (!) .
Now the french wants to whine about some russian 'fake news' being the reason why they are hated across a whole continent, which is not the case.
The french have been in Africa for the last 250 years. They have their neighbourhoods, their schools, their restaurants. They rarely mix with the local population for reasons other than sex.
Their priests and military personnel raped so many of our grand-mothers, and when caught were just sent to another african countries.
If somebody that has known you, learned your language and gastronomy, consumed your music and movies for 250 years does not want to be with you, it's not because of gossip.
France lost the plot, with the EU as with Africa, and they can only blame themselves for it.
I mean the Russians trying to exert soft power of Europe is a thing, but over a century if French colonialism _really_ doesn't help your argument one bit.
French colonialism ended a long time ago, like in the 60s. It’s been over 60 years.
[edit] The French even regularly hold referendums in COMs like New Caledonia offering to cut them loose. But the last one they had 97% voted to remain part of France. Sometimes it’s good to be a dependency of a world power.
I should correct myself, New Caledonia isn’t a COM (collectivité d'outre-mer) anymore but a sui generis collectivity. But I digress.
>French colonialism ended a long time ago, like in the 60s. It’s been over 60 years.
On paper yes, unofficially it never stopped. It just went underground and got better PR, as now it's no longer enslavement under the barrel of a gun, but under the pressure of money.
Check out the CFA Franc[1] and Guinea, which was pressured by France to accept the CFA Franc currency, which brought financial instability and disadvantageous economic relationships between African countries and France.
Or how most of Africa's resources are exploited by French (and British) companies by bribing whatever corrupt despot rules each country with the blessing of French/UK leadership, to be allowed to extract valuable resources for pennies on the dollar way below market rate while the country and the people get nothing out of it. Sure, it's technically not colonialism, as the British/French flags are no longer planted there, but come one, it's basically outsourced colonialism with extra steps through middle men.
The CFA franc is used by 14 countries. Until 2020, those countries were required to deposit half of their foreign exchange reserves with the French Treasury. France also maintains a military presence in several of its former colonies.
Colonialism may have ended, but France continues to exert influence in Africa.
> Colonialism may have ended, but France continues to exert influence in Africa.
Yes, of course. Lots of countries exert influence in Africa. The PRC just opened its first off-shore military base Djibouti. Russia has whatever fresh hell the Wagner group is bringing - especially to the Central African Republic. America has bases in at least 10 African countries.
Colonialism may be over but challenges in managing international influence will always persist.
This is misleading in the extreme. The Kanaky separatists boycotted the referendum.
Something I find equally interesting is how apologists for European colonialism are perfectly content to claim 60 years is a long time (with the implication that it no longer matters), when systems were designed to explicitly keep the former colonies subservient, often including co-opting, or cultivating a corrupt elite. At what point would you say it became inconsequential? After 2 years? Two decades? 4?
The referendum was based on a set calendar. The French central government refused to have it rescheduled. The Kanaky nationalists were opposed to having it run in the thick of COVID. The trajectory was in their favour, based on previous referendum outcomes, so I'm inclined to believe they boycotted as a matter of principle. In the end, the people who voted were mostly settlers from Metropolitan France, whose representatives are now actively working to roll back Kanaky autonomy. This information is very easy to find for anyone who cares, so I'm (genuinely) curious why you'd ask in what seems like a casually dismissive tone.
What a malicious lie. Former colonies were still paying debts for 50 years plus, and many of them are still paying them. France has first rights to the natural resources of many of its former colonies. Colonialism never ended, it has simply changed hands. Now corrupt African politicians trade the futures of their countries and constituents as servants of empire instead of the colonial powers having direct rule. And even China is getting a piece of the pie now.
If you feel that way, then you literally know nothing about the characteristics of many colonial states as they actually existed. One has to wonder why you’re speaking so authoritatively on the subject of that is the case.
The political impacts of the European powers' creation of borders and their intervention in places like Haiti remain to this day, lest you think people should just "let it go".
Nobody's going to deny that the impacts of past actions continue into the present and the reasonably anticipated future. That's not the claim I'm making. I claimed that France hasn't had colonialist ambitions or policies in 60+ years. You mentioned a 'century of colonialism' - I'm pointing out that it ended more than half a century ago.
And I'm what I'm telling you is that nobody in Africa cares that it finished 50 years ago when the impacts are still felt today and the economic influence of the developed world continues on that tradition.
> Then we have at least half a century of Russia being abused that way...
Ah yup... Because Stalin who wanted to execute 30 000 Nazis officer to "give an example" was a saint? (for the record it's Churchill who opposed to that)
And the attitude of the USSR during the cold war was a respectable one?
As in: people in eastern germany were happy to live on that side of the Berlin wall and not in western germany instead?
Seriously: russians weren't villain-worthy enough to you during the cold war?
Ask ukrainians what they think about your point of view...
Where did I talk about France? I was commenting on your comment about movies portaying Russia has being "propaganda".
> The rest of stuff is the same level of pathetic. Eastern Germans complaining they didn't get access to white privilege, that they deserve by birthright, for almost forty years is sure tragic.
What does "white privilege" have to do with anything in post-WWII Europe?
Are you really going down that route? Germany (both western and eastern) had been levelled to ground during WWII, with many german civilians killed. Wanna talk about their "white privileges"? You wanna talk about the "white privilege" of my grandfather who spent five years in a prison in germany during WWII or the "white privilege" of all the countries in Europe who were living under the dictature of nazi germany?
Wanna talk about the "white privilege" of the tens of thousands of US soldiers who died to free Europe?
Maybe you wanna talk too about the "jewish privilege" during WWII too?
EDIT: oh... apparently you're russian or you live in Russia. So you're defending the USSR and you're not commenting on the invasion of Ukraine. Makes sense now.
This is not about Africa but rather Haiti
but I think the point stands.
Why can't France give Haiti USD 21B?
Or even USD 100B.
It doesn't have to be in one lump sum.
Would that bankrupt France?
When I look up France GDP,
I see 2.958 trillion USD (2021).
Actually do some good in the world for once.
(And make some money for French companies doing so).
Build some physical infrastructure in Haiti.
Clean drinking water, reforestation, etc...
a hundred billion dollars will go a long way in a country like Haiti...
