France’s historical missteps in West Africa

By Ejiroghene Barret and Adama Traoré

 

In December 2023, the military government of Burkina Faso unveiled a bill aiming to revise the constitution and abolish the use of French as an official language.

Burkina Faso is not the first state in the Sahel to actively review its dependence on the French language. Mali preceded it in this regard when it dropped French as an official language in June 2023, following a constitutional amendment that was approved by a large majority of voters.

Recently, the main French educational institution, lycée “La Fontaine,” closed its doors in Niger’s capital, Niamey, it was reported. Officially, the management of the lycée, founded more than 60 years ago, attributed the closure to “diplomatic tensions between Paris and Niamey.”

“Founded in the 1960s, it was one of the last bastions of French education in Niger,” the outlet said.

These developments illustrate the growing opposition to French culture’s dominance in public and official circles across the Sahel, which used to be an important hub for France in Africa. They also demonstrate that the predictable outcome of France’s unyielding political chokehold over its former colonies would eventually complete the deconstruction of the political and economic superiority myth. The chickens are finally coming home to roost in the Sahel.

This decision by the Burkinabe and Malian governments represents a setback for the language, which France promoted for decades and enshrined through the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF).

In a region rich with dozens of indigenous languages and dialects, the French language was imposed as a convenient working tool that would ease the administrative burden on France and establish political vassals.

After countries in the region gained independence from France in the 1960s, as part of the efforts to maintain its administrative dominance, the French language was largely retained because of the overwhelming influence that France had over its former colonies. However, the language also diminished the relevance of local languages in official communication.

France has lost a lot more than its cultural dominance in this fast-declining hold on its former colonies. From its control of the economic and political destinies of its self-styled “Francophone” states, to an imposition of its military might as a warning against any form of threat against its interests on the continent. Over the years French authorities seemed to have ignored the growing resentment of the country’s hegemony on the continent, especially the Sahel, where resource exploitation persisted unchecked for decades.

Military exit and the reemergence of sovereignty

The acceleration of this “liberation” follows a series of military coups, triggered by growing opposition to French paternalistic control of political establishments that were democratic in name but borderline authoritarian in practice.

On the diplomatic front, France has witnessed several pushbacks against its longstanding relations in military and economic cooperation. This is even more damning as one of its most strategic footholds in these states was its military establishment that presented itself as a big brother, watching over the activities of all former colonies.

The latest in the list of countries to expel the French military are Senegal and Tchad, both finally announcing the decision in December 2024, with Tchad taking immediate action while Senegal announced a road map for withdrawal. The symbolism that underlined the Senegalese decision gave clearer context to the reason behind it. The decision came as Senegal marked the 80th anniversary of the mass killings of West African soldiers by colonial forces on the morning of December 1, 1944. The men, West African soldiers of the “Tirailleurs Senegalais” unit who fought in France’s war against Nazi Germany, had been protesting delays in salaries and poor living conditions when colonial soldiers fired on them.

Burkina Faso has broken all ties with France, expelling the French special forces that were stationed in the country, denouncing its military assistance treaty with France and ending more than 60 years of military cooperation in March 2023. The military junta also expelled the French ambassador to the country. It became the second Francophonie country to do that after Mali.

The French military withdrawal marks a new era in Franco-African relations. In September 2023, the world witnessed mass protests in Niger calling for the closure of French military bases and expulsion of all French personnel, including a long-drawn-out siege on the French embassy, which eventually forced France to recall its ambassador to the country.

In the Sahel, the statements by leaders tell the same story of French dominance and the push to end relations that served French interests only. Until recently, France had 5,000 troops stationed permanently in Africa, more than on any other continent outside its own borders. They had more troops stationed in Africa than the total number they contributed to NATO.

Even with these numbers, Macron’s claims that France’s military presence has ensured political stability on the continent are seen as disingenuous by political commentators. The total military force of the Sahelian states of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Tchad and Mauritania amounts to 77,000 soldiers, which is 15 times the size of French troops stationed in Africa.

The claims appear even more distorted when juxtaposed with the reality of French political influence in the last six decades; a period in which francophone Africa experienced 52 coups d’état, accounting for 71% of all coups that took place since independence.

Even more revealing of French catastrophic political adventure in Africa is that among all the former French colonies, only two are classified as partly democratic.

According to Farida Bemba Nabourema, a Togolese activist, former French colonies in Africa also happen to host some of the longest-serving authoritarian leaderships on the continent, enjoying the full support and protection of France.

Change emerges even from unexpected quarters

It appears that the realignment of relations with France has reached parts that even the most optimistic pundits would have never predicted. In January, Cote D’Ivoire’s president, Alassane Ouattara, announced during a national broadcast the country’s decision to expel French forces, following the growing regional trend.

This has come as a surprise to many who see Ouattara as France’s staunchest ally in the region who they say has remained an outspoken voice in defence of preserving a strong cultural and political link between Paris and its former colonies. As one anonymous source puts it; “He owes his presidency to France and would have never seized power and maintained it without France’s military intervention in Côte d’Ivoire that led to the forceful removal of his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo by French troops in 2011. So, his announcement must be taken with a pinch of salt.”

What is obvious is that the exit of French forces in some Francophone states is part of a broader trend of redefining French foreign and defence policy, in response to geopolitical developments and internal dynamics in France, and not a complete cessation of economic ties. This is particularly true of Cote D’Ivoire where 30% of Ivorian workforce are employed by French or French affiliated companies, so they are deeply entrenched in the Ivorian economy.

The growing force of resistance to French political and cultural influences is being felt in the moods of citizens across the Francophone states and in France, and its remaining allies seem to understand the importance of a strategic shift in its foreign policy; a calculated attempt to save face following the humiliating expulsions of its forces from the Sahel.

By pivoting to non-military methods of dominance, France aims to maintain its leverage and influence while avoiding the visible backlash that military presence provoked. As one commentator puts it; “it is rather a repositioning, abandoning a sinking ship before it fully capsizes, all while ensuring the strings of influence remain firmly in their hands.”

The withdrawal of French military personnel is far from a retreat. The French government announced these plans early in 2024, collaborating closely with leaders like Ouattara to promote more civil relations.

The contingent in Ivory Coast, once a pillar of the French presence in West Africa, had already been reduced from 900 to 600 soldiers. Similar reductions also started in Senegal, where the president included this as one of his key campaign promises.

What many find hard to swallow is the continued deference of the Ivorian government to dictates from Paris, considering that it has been one of the most recent victims of French belligerence.

On November 6, 2004, while taking a lead role in carving a new political direction for the country under “Operation Licorne”, perhaps France’s last unilateral military intervention in the old style, the French army showed its disregard for the sovereign authority of Cote D’Ivoire when it destroyed the entire Ivorian air force on the ground, saying it was in response to Ivorian forces’ attack on the French army that led to the death of six French soldiers.

A few days later, on November 9, the French army fired on Ivorian civilians who had come out to protest against French presence in front of the Ivory Hotel in Abidjan, causing the death of dozens of Ivorians and hundreds of injuries.

West African political commentators will also not forget in a hurry, April 11, 2011, when the French army burst into the residence of President Gbagbo to neutralise his bodyguards before withdrawing to let the rebels arrest Gbagbo in front of the cameras of the whole world in total humiliation.

While this may have been described as an operation endorsed by the entire West African leadership and member-states of the ECOWAS, French lawyer and political mole, Robert Bourgi, exposed the political manipulations that unfolded behind the scenes.

In an interview on French TV channel, France24, speaking about his collection of memoirs “they know that I know everything – my life in Françafrique”, Bourgi exposed how the personal whim of former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, may have cost former Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, his presidency, saying Gbagbo’s defeat in the 2014 elections had been engineered by Sarkozy who had told him (Bourgi) personally that he would “vitrify” Gbagbo.

For nearly 30 years, Bourgi served France-Afrique, a system maintained by the various French governments to keep Paris’ control over its former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. However, he also has a reputation for making false claims and so his words are not unassailable facts, but they hint at the political artifice that defined French relations with its former colonies.

The decline in allegiance and a pushback from France

There are other reasons for this new anti-France sentiment and why it is catching on among the populations of former French colonies in West Africa. France had established such a powerful military and political presence on the continent and it seemed to have taken the consequences of its overarching dominance for granted as its actions further exacerbated political tensions.

A recent statement from Macron, that Africans have forgotten to say thank you for what France did for them, is an indication of the arrogance that has incited the growing opposition to French presence. For example, it is inconceivable that a nation like Burkina Faso, which is the leading cotton producer in West Africa, was only processing 3% of its harvested cotton while it was buying processed cotton from Western states.  France, with all its technical knowledge, allowed this to persist.

In Niger, a country that provided 15% of France’s uranium needs and also accounted for a fifth of the EU’s total uranium imports, mining activities have had deteriorating health effects on people living in areas close to mining activities.

In 2021, the closure of the Cominak mines, run by the French nuclear company Orano, left the local population with 20 million tones of radioactive mud on the mine’s site, according to the French-based Independent Research and Information Commission on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD).

According to CRIIRAD’s findings, the level of radioactivity was 450,000 Becquerels (Bq) per kilo, well above the internationally recommended levels of radiation. Such levels of radiation cause birth defects, cancer, and a number of other disorders, not to mention, as CRIIRAD’s scientist, Bruno Chareyron, explained, in a report by Press TV.

The report also states that nuclear activities by Orano, through the 47 years of producing uranium for the French, have also contaminated soil and underground water for over 100,000 people living in the area. The uranium mining was supposed to help fight poverty. However, Niger remained one of the world’s poorest countries and at the same time the world’s fifth-largest uranium producer.

Perhaps the growing awareness among a large part of the population in West African states of the dire political and economic implications of the secret colonial agreements under the France-Afrique doctrine have stirred the anti-France sentiment

With a region experiencing a political revival that has spurred growing demands for social justice, it is impossible to continue to accept sneaky agreements of colonial domination, including confiscation of national financial reserves; granting France the right of first refusal on natural resources, reinforcing a system that continues to impoverish the states.

Included are priority status given French firms in public markets and calls for tenders, exclusive right to military equipment and officer training, and mandatory use of the CFA Franc as the official currency of the Francophone states, and maintaining French economic and financial control.

The agreement is also said to include the annual submission of balance sheet and reserves report from the African states in France, and many others. The decline of French influence in Africa did not start today. It began during Sarkozy’s era, worsened under François Hollande, and has reached a critical point under Emmanuel Macron. Yet, each leader has employed new tactics to maintain France’s control over the continent, adapting their strategies to shifting dynamics.

In 2013, François Hollande admitted in a rare moment of candour that France was losing its grip on Francophone Africa. But instead of planning to reconsider their exploitative policies, Hollande’s strategy was not only to reassert control over Francophone nations but also to extend France’s influence into Anglophone countries such as Ghana and Nigeria.

Macron has reinforced this plan with renewed zeal. Another dimension of the plot was France’s attempt to hijack the longstanding ECOWAS initiative to create a common currency called the ECO. For decades, Francophone African nations under the French-controlled UEMOA, West African Economic and Monetary Union, had resisted ECOWAS’ efforts to establish a truly independent regional currency, prodded by France. France then announced plans to rebrand the CFA franc as the ECO, adopting the name and diluting the vision of an independent West African currency, a plan rejected by Anglophone members of the regional body. The attempt was eventually abandoned.

Francophone Africa has always been the key to France’s claim to a global role, and the loss of that influence has clearly caused panic amongst the French political elite.

Macron’s foot-in-the- mouth moment, when he accused African nations of ingratitude to France, claiming none of them would be “in a sovereign country today if the French army had not been deployed in this region,” exposes his desperation and subtle hint of the arrogance of the French political establishment that has spurred the anti-French sentiments.

However, Macron conveniently ignored the fact that on their watch West Africa became a terror hotspot for Boko Haram, the Islamic State in West Africa Province ISWAP, the Islamic State in Sahel Province, Al-Qaeda and its offshoots like the JNIM. All these Terror groups have been running rampant in the Sahel region in former French colonies like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger right under the noses of French troops that had been stationed there. This instability has been blamed for multiple military coups in West Africa.

Macron’s mental gymnastics are deceptive but obviously the African nations were not impressed by his claims. Tchad’s foreign minister, Abderaman Koulamallah, issued a statement saying Macron holds a contemptuous attitude towards Africa and Africans. He added that the French presence in Tchad has often been limited to its own strategic interests without any real lasting impact for the development of the Chadian people.

Senegal’s Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, also countered Macron’s claims, saying that France helped destabilise countries like Libya, which contributed to the security crisis in the Sahel. Sonko issued a Parting Shot, saying “This is finally the place to remind President Macron that if African soldiers, sometimes forcibly mobilised, mistreated and ultimately betrayed, had not deployed during the second world war to defend France it would perhaps still be Germany today.

According to a public commentator in Burkina Faso, Macron’s statements show just how untethered he is from reality. Instead of respecting the wishes of the African people he has chosen to insult them it’s another mess of his own making one that will probably accelerate France’s departure from Africa.