- By Olabode Lucas
Recently, I came across a video recording by the newly elected president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, which I presumed was recorded before the presidential election in his country which he won decisively. In the video recording, the 44-year old Faye condemned in an impeccable English language, France’s interference in the affairs of its former colonies in Africa. He urged France in an unmistakable term, to loosen its oppressive grip on Africa as he alluded to years of human trafficking, exploitation, colonialism and neo-colonialism by France that had brought nothing but misery to Africa. Faye urged France to emulate Germany that does not have any colony to exploit and yet it is the economic powerhouse in Europe and the third largest economy in the world. He further urged France to stop its inference in political development in Africa through imposition of unpopular leaders, who are nothing but lackeys of France.
With this explosive exposition of French atrocities in Africa, coupled with the recent open and unapologetic rejection of France in Mali, Guinea, and Niger by the patriotic new young military rulers of these countries, the days of reckoning have come for France in Africa especially in its former colonies. France is no longer at ease in Africa as its heinous policy in Africa is now unravelling.
In the sixties, the imperious President De Gaulle of France gave paper independence to French colonies in Africa and corralled them into an unholy French community. In doing so, he imposed puppets as new rulers of these so-called independent countries. Some of these puppet leaders were, Leopold Senghor of Senegal, Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast, Ahmadu Ahidjo of Cameroons, Maurice Yameogo of the then Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, Ahmani Diori of Niger, Hubert Maga of the then Dahomey now Benin, Tombalbaye of Chad, imbecilic Jean Bokassa of Central African Republic and other pliable leaders. These leaders could see nothing wrong with France and they were installed as leaders to take care of French interests instead of the interests of their countries. They were simply French people in black skin who wholly imbibed French culture.
The terms of independence given to these leaders by France were punitive. All the foreign exchange earnings of these countries were domiciled in Paris, where they were linked to French Franc. They could only withdraw their legitimate earnings only with permission of the French government. It is also known that all French former colonies in Africa are paying back to France colonial tax for money France claimed to have used for the infrastructural development of the colonies, as if people in these colonies did not pay any tax when they were under the oppressive tutelage of France. At present, this colonial tax amounts to $500 billion. In order to ensure compliance with terms of independence, the French kept paratroopers in these former colonies at independence for the purpose of ousting any recalcitrant leader. This was the lot of Sylvanus Olympio of Togo who rebelled against these heinous terms of independence immediately after his country’s independence. France, eventually after some years was able to impose Eyadema as president of Togo, and who throughout his oppressive 38-year reign, was a lackey of France.
The two leaders who defied De Gaulle and refused to join the suffocating French community with its punishing terms for independence were Sekou Toure of Guinea and to some extent Modibo Keita of Mali. For his audacity, De Gaulle unleashed all French colonial venom on Sekou Toure. Overnight at independence, he withdrew from Guinea, all French technicians and administrators leaving the newly independent country high and dry. De Gaulle wanted to cripple Guinea but for the prompt intervention of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, who provided necessary assistance to Guinea. For this heroic role of Nkrumah, he became a marked man for destruction by De Gaulle and his co-oppressors in the Western world.
Apart from the atrocities committed in its former colonies, France has never meant well for Africa, It is on record that despite all the entreaties, France under President De Gaulle tested atom bomb in the Sahara Desert in the sixties. These tests caused a lot of serious health problems in many countries in Africa including Nigeria, where the new independent government under the conservative and cautious Tafawa Balewa cut diplomatic relation with France. De Gaulle could not stand this, as he was irked at the temerity of Nigeria in giving diplomatic snub to France. De Gaulle had his revenge during the Nigeria civil war when he tacitly gave support to the ill-fated Biafra and encouraged Ivory Coast to recognize the secessionist Biafra. It is also on record that France did all within its power to frustrate the formation of ECOWAS because it thought that such a union would lessen its influence in its former colonies in West Africa.
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Far afield, France is responsible for the present poverty and economic dislocation in the hapless Haiti through the punitive reparation it imposed on Haiti at independence. After the people of Haiti revolted to have their independence, France callously made Haiti to pay it 90 million gold francs which presently is equivalent to $21 billion. Up till now, no French government has come to the aid of Haiti by paying back the money extorted from that country.
It is an irony that France that has been turning black people into serfs in their continent, collapsed like pack of cards under the onslaught of Germany, just nine months after the commencement of the Second World War that lasted for good six years. France was humiliated and forced to sign an armistice agreement on June 22, 1940. Also, the same France that is flexing its muscle in its former colonies in Africa was booted out in disgrace from its colonies in Indo-China, after it was decisively defeated in the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
French policy in Africa is collapsing and it is gratifying to note that young Africans in the former French colonies in Africa are throwing away the suffocating toga of French neo-colonialism. By July this year, eight former French colonies in Africa would stop using CFA but will have their own independent currency called Eco, which would be tied to Euro instead of French Franc. This is a welcomed development. It is a pity that the youthful French president, Emmanuel Macron fails to see the handwriting on the wall and instead of initiating new French African policy based on collaboration between equal partners, he is still pursuing the imperious policy of the De Gaulle era which is archaic and subjugating. This policy is now roundly rejected by leaders in French former colonies in Africa.
In his reaction to the new development, Macron arrogantly asserted that Niger and other Sahel countries would collapse without French support. The policy of France in its former colonies is a mockery of the French motto of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. It has not extended this to its former colonies in Africa where many people now regard France more as a foe.
•Prof Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.
