BY LACINA KONE
The French Embassy in Ethiopia took notice of an opinion article published in The Ethiopian Herald dated 14 March 2021, expressing hostile and counterfactual views regarding the relationship between France and Africa, and wishes to exercise its right of reply.
The article starts quite badly with a quote from Ernest Renan about colonization – while it was surely relevant at the time (he died in 1892), it is surprising that it is used as a starting point for thinking about the relationship between France and 54 independent African states in 2021.
First of all, the Embassy kindly invites the authorto take a closer look at the history of the African continent, as his article contains several serious factual errors.
Neither Guinea-Bissau nor Equatorial Guinea has ever been a French colony. The disagreement between Sekou Toure and General de Gaulle was not about cooperation agreement but about the independence process – and that is why Guinea became independent in 1958, two years before the other French colonies of West and Central Africa. Newly independent African States in the early 1960s were able to find a balance between different partners very quickly: Benin, Congo, Madagascar and Mali, for instance, kicked out French military cooperation at some point and replaced it with USSR military cooperation.
Moreover, the promotion of its economic interests was not the goal that France was pursuing through the cooperation agreements it signed with independent African states in the early 1960s. These agreements were approved by the Parliaments of France and of its African partners and hence were never “secret agreements”; they were aiming at securing access to strategic minerals while providing an external security guarantee within the context of the Cold War – something anyone is welcome to debate, but getting the facts right should be a prerequisite. As they became irrelevant, these agreements have expired or have been denounced.
Mentioning the “meek silence of Francophone African intellectuals” sounds very strange – and maybe insulting, but it is not for this Embassy to decide – to anyone who is familiar with the vibrancy of intellectual life in Francophone African countries and within the African diaspora in France. Two of the most prominent anticolonial intellectuals at the time of independence were Frantz Fanon (from Martinique, of African descent) and Albert Memmi (Tunisian-French). They wrote essays that were, at their time, very hostile to France; diplomats from the Embassy have read The Colonizer and the Colonized and Black Skin, White Masks – but maybe the author of the article has not. It is unfortunate that the role of Francophone African intellectuals in the struggle for independence is misunderstood by an Ethiopian writer, since Ethiopia was at the forefront of this struggle. Nowadays, Achille Mbembe (from Cameroon), who frequently expresses critical views on French policies in Africa and is very welcome to do so, is one of the most prominent African intellectuals. He engages us and we listen to him; the author might want to read the latest interview of Mr. Mbembe in JeuneAfrique (March 21st).
The relationship France currently has with its African partners is also severely misconstrued. For instance, we cannot but regret that the author did not take the time to read the monetary cooperation agreements between France and 15 African states: all these agreements are public, and they have been openly discussed and renegotiated on a number of occasions over the last 60 years.
The countries that are currently using the CFA do it because they consider that it serves their national interest. Through the guarantee of unlimited convertibility, France plays a key role in this monetary cooperation but it is the African Heads of State and Government who decide on the exchange rate with euro – as they did with the franc in 1994. Countries can decide to leave or join the Franc Zone: Guinea left in 1960, Mali left in 1962 (and joined again in 1984), Mauritania and Madagascar left in 1973; Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau joined,respectively in 1985 and 1997, because they thought it was in their own interest to do so.
France does not use the African currency reserves deposited with the French Treasury to finance its external debt (11 billion EUR of reserves while France’s external debt is currently around 2,650 billion EUR – just to put it into perspective). The reserves deposited are available at any time if their owners need them and they do not have to borrow their own resources. All in all, one should also acknowledge that regional monetary integration and currency stability are two important assets, shielding economies and citizens from high inflation rates and easing their access to foreign currency. The merits of fixed exchange rates and guaranteed convertibility are a matter for legitimate debate, but they have nothing to do with an alleged “grip” – in practice, the benefits of this convertibility are not limited to French companies, but extended to any trading partner.
We do not need any “grip” to have legitimate economic interest in Africa, as we have in Peru, in Kazakhstan or in Malaysia.
Even if France’s market share has significantly decreased over the last decades, as the number of Africa’s economic partners increased, France remains a major partner for many African countries in a competitive environment, because they think it is in their interest to do so. Africa accounts for only 5% of France’s foreign trade, 6,300 French companies have set based in Africa where they invest and employ; and 48,000 French companies are exporting to Africa every year.
Beyond these economic relations, there are close ties between France and many African countries because of realities that the author should acknowledge: 10 to 15% of French citizens are of African descent, half of the African diaspora in Europe is in France, 130 000 Africans are currently studying in higher education institutions in France.
That is why the French Senate stated that “Africa is our future”. If the author of the article had read the summary of this report, he would have found this sentence: “In conclusion, the working group is convinced that part of France’s future lies in Africa. This is why it has entitled this report: “Africa is our future”.There is quite a significant gap between “part of France’s future lies in Africa” and “the continued subjection of Africa”.
Today, Africa’s economic growth is a global shared interest, as is Africa’s security.
The author seems to be blaming France for “sending troops” to Africa. It should be very clear that France is “sending troops” to Africa only upon request of sovereign African states, and that the presence of French troops on African soil can only be a temporary solution. In the case of Mali in January 2013, Malian authorities specifically requested immediate military support in order to stop armed jihadist groups heading to take the capital city. France, as a member of both the European Union and the UN Security Council, has consistently and publically supported all recent efforts to develop African capacities to address the security challenges on the continent. We are in favor of African solutions to African problems.
Africa is a rapidly changing continent, booming demographically and economically, Europe’s closest neighbour, with links based on a shared history and the presence of diasporas on both sides. In such a context, it should not be surprising that a close partnership between the European Union and European countries, on the one hand, and the African Union and African countries, on the other hand, is growing stronger every year as a result of the political will expressed by African and European leaders.
Finally, we are quite shocked that in 2021 the African author of this article seems to consider that Africans can only have a choice between different “empires” imposed by external powers.
That is not the way France sees Africa, neither today, nor in the future. African states, non-state actors and people are not meant to be subordinate to external powers, or dependent on aid and investment from any particular country. They are fully capable of managing relationships with different partners, within the framework of mutually beneficial exchanges, just as France is.
It is bizarre to present Africa’s partners as always competing for influence or market shares in a zero sum game. As members of the G20, France and China have decided to work together to prevent a foreign debt trap, to promote transparency and comparable treatment within the debt restructuration initiative knows as the “common framework”. The two countries have also launched the unprecedented initiative of a joint financing of an environment project in Senegal for which China has agreed to grant a concessional loan as untied development aid.
We do not want to be “dominant” and we certainly do not want to have a “backyard” anywhere in Africa. The partnership we are aiming at is based on acknowledged common interests and mutual benefits. Just like the author, we want Africa to rise, and we do not see Africa rising as a threat but as a great opportunity for its people and for the whole world.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald April 14/2021
