EMMANUEL MACRON GOES ON A SAFARI TOUR
In planning the visit, Macron played it safe, or at least attempted to do so. Central Africa Republic, Mali and Burkina Faso were understandably excluded from the French leader's itinerary as they had all exhibited some level of hostility to France.
In fact, he avoided Francophone West Africa altogether, focussing on Central Africa and Southern Africa where anti-French sentiment was less visceral or non-existent. He chose to visit Gabon, Angola, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo.
While Macron was unwilling to visit Central Africa Republic (C.A.R) for obvious reasons, he did agree to meet its President, but on the foreign soil of Gabon, a much friendlier third country.
So how did the French leader's whistle stop Safari tour of 4 countries go? At first, it looked like Macron was on the road to rescuing his country's influence in francophone Africa. The French leader's trip to the first three countries seemed to have gone well. Then he visited the fourth (final) country on the list and things fell apart quickly and irretrievably...
In this article, I will attempt to conduct an anatomy of Macron's visit as follows:
ANATOMY OF THE PLOT: PUTTING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE
There is no doubt that France is on the back foot in francophone Africa. I have written extensively on that subject on this platform. Central Africa Republic (C.A.R) set the ball rolling by completely ignoring the objections of the French government and inviting Russian mercenaries— weirdly bearing the german name, "Wagner"— to help them fight Islamic insurgents.
The Macron government threw a tantrum and promptly withdrew its “donor aid” packages in protest. C.A.R simply responded by inviting more Wagner mercenaries into the country. It didn't take long for both government and ordinary citizens of C.A.R to start singing the praises of the mercenaries who were successfully crushing the Islamic extremists.
1,844 miles away, in West Africa, the Republic of Mali also looking for Russian mercenaries to fight its own Islamist insurgency, which became supercharged after the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya in October 2011. NATO weapons that USA, UK and France had given to Libyan jihadists had reached Malian terrorists through Algeria, which shares a desert border with Mali.
Before Wagner mercenaries were brought in, Mali had a French-led multinational EU force, which included troops of Germany's Bundeswehr, deployed to fight Malian terrorists.The EU intervention was a total disaster. As soon as the Russian mercenaries arrived and began to rack up battlefield successes, Mali kicked out the EU multinational force.
Macron condemned presence of the mercenaries in Mali. The military junta ruling Mali responded by asking Macron to close all French military bases and remove all remaining French troops in the African country. Macron grudgingly complied, but escalated the feud with Mali by freezing "donor aid". Mali responded by banning all French-funded non-governmental organizations from its territory.
Not long after, the wave of anti-French sentiment hit neighbouring Burkina Faso. Burkinabe protesters, waving Russian flags, descended on French diplomatic buildings. Windows were broken and fires were set to some of these buildings. On Monday 2nd January 2023, the French Ambassador in Burkina Faso, Mr. Luc Hallade, was suddenly expelled. This was quickly followed up by expulsion of all French troops in Burkina Faso and the invitation of Russian Wagner mercenaries to take their place.
Outside Mali and Burkina Faso, there have been scattered reports of anti-French protests in other parts of francophone Africa.
Nevertheless, having said all the above, it is still important to put things in their correct perspective.
There are 21 francophone countries on the continent stretching all the way from Algeria in North Africa to Mali in West Africa to the Island nation of Madagascar, which is considered a part of the Southern Africa region. Despite all you have heard from the news (and from myself), it may surprise you to note that only a handful out of the 21 countries have either had anti-French protests, had kicked out French troops or both.
For every Mali and Burkina Faso downgrading relations with the French, there are Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius and Togo still continuing good relations with France.
Despite what happened in Burkina Faso and Mali, France continues to operate huge military bases in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Djibouti without impediment. There are 3000 French troops split into these four military bases. But there is more. France has another 3000 troops deployed in francophone states such as Chad and Niger Republic where it has no formal military bases. These French troops stay in temporary barracks and their purposes is to provide "training for local armed forces of the host countries."
So altogether, France still has 6000 active duty soldiers in francophone states in West and Central Africa, which have not seen any serious anti-French unrest.
Macron's priority, and reason for the continental visitation, is to stop the bush fire of anti-French sentiment from spreading further in francophone Africa, particularly to the majority of french-speaking states which had not followed the example of Burkina Faso and Mali.
Macron is keen on strengthening economic ties with non-french speaking African countries. France's diplomatic relations with Anglophone and Lusophone African countries has never been in danger as there are no historic animosities in places where French colonialism (or French neocolonialism) did not exist. This partly explains why Portuguese-speaking Angola was the token non-francophone African nation in the list of countries to visit
ANATOMY OF THE 1ST VISIT: MACRON IN GABON
As I expected, the first leg of Macron's visit began with petroleum-rich Republic of Gabon in Central Africa, which has a peculiar history of been quite Francophile.
In the late 1950s, the agitation for decolonization was still raging. Brits had come to terms with it and surrendered India, Pakistan, Burma and Ghana to independence. But the French were having none of it. French troops fought insurgents in Vietnam and Algeria to maintain their country's colonial empire.
After suffering a humiliating defeat in Vietnam, the French colossus, General Charles De Gaulle, came up with a brilliant idea that would offer nominal "flag independence" to the colonies in Africa while still keeping France in charge.
The General offered a referendum which gave each colony the option of either becoming an overseas province of France or joining Communauté Française, a supranational entity that transformed the colonies into quasi-independent client states of France.
Charles de Gaulle visited the colonies to campaign for a vote to join Communauté Française. In the colony of Guinea, the General famously forgot his trademark kepi cap on a conference table in the capital city of Conkary as he angrily stormed out of a meeting with the Guinean leader, Ahmed Sékou Touré, who said that Guineans would rather starve to death than agree to convert their homeland from a colony into a satellite state of France.
Guinea would end up being the only French colony in sub-Saharan Africa to vote in the referendum against membership of Communauté Française on 28 September 1958. And France would retaliate by destroying most of the infrastructure it had built on Guinean territory before pulling its colonial administrators, technocrats and military troops out. Thereafter, the abandoned colony declared itself a sovereign nation on 2nd October 1958, making it the first francophone African nation to do so. It was also the first to drop the CFA Franc as currency after independence, and one of a few Francophone countries without French troops on its territory.
Gabon was the exact opposite of Guinea. Charles de Gaulle was alarmed at the excessive francophilia gripping Gabon. To his astonishment, local African politicians in the colony were instructing the populace to vote to become an oversees province of France. The General spent some time explaining to the local Gabonese politicians that it was in the best interest of the colony of Gabon to gain pseudo-independence and then join Communauté Française which will allow France to maintain "supervision of everything."
As Charles later told his confidant, Alain Peyrefitte, it was okay to take on the financial and managerial burdens of administering tiny francophone Caribbean colonies that opted to become overseas departments (i.e. provinces) of France, but it was an anathema to allow a relatively large African colony like Gabon to become an integral part of France via the referendum. “The Gabonese would remain attached to us like stones around our necks," said the French leader. "I had a hard time trying to dissuade them [the Gabonese] from going for the option of an oversees province.”
In the end, a cajoled Gabon voted in the September 1958 referendum--along with other francophone African colonies-- to join Communauté Française as a nominally sovereign nation. So there you have it. A brief history of Gabon's francophilia. Now back to March 2023 and Macron's visit...
Macron's arrival in Gabon passed without any problems. The visit was not well received by the political opposition to the ruling Bongo dynasty.
Opposition politicians aren't generally hostile to French influence in Gabon. They are merely opposed to what they construe as Macron's endorsement of incumbent President Ali Bongo in the upcoming 2023 Presidential elections.
While feeling relaxed and welcome in Gabon, Macron said that the "age of La Francafrique was over." In other words, the French quasi-colonial system constructed by General Charles De Gaulle was dead.
But did he really mean it? I don't think so. More like he plans to reform and adjust De Gaulle's "La Francafrique" policy to fit with the changing times.
He told the local press that France will continue to operate its remaining military bases in Gabon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Djibouti. However, management of the military bases will now be a joint endeavour between France and the host African country. The only exception would be the strategic military base in Djibouti. The Djibouti military base-- located at the mouth of the Red Sea-- will remain exclusively French.
Macron also spoke of the great reconciliatory efforts France had made in returning artifacts looted from Kingdom of Dahomey (now called Benin Republic) and the Kingdom of Imerina (now Madagascar). He spoke of new arrangements to return an ancient drum looted from what is now the Republic of Ivory Coast.
Before leaving Gabon, Macron managed to hold a brief meeting with President Faustin Touadera of neighbouring Central Africa Republic (C.A.R). Mr. Touadera had come to Gabon to meet Macron since the latter was reluctant to visit C.A.R because of the presence of Wagner mercenaries.
ANATOMY OF THE 2ND VISIT: MACRON IN ANGOLA
Macron landed in Luanda and was received by Angolan President, Mr. Joao Lourenco. Oil-rich Angola was a safe bet that there would be no controversy. The Portuguese-speaking country in Southern Africa has no history of French colonialism or post-colonial french meddling. So there isn't much in the way of anti-French sentiments over there. Macron simply called for "greater economic ties" which is just the French leader's roundabout way of saying that Angola should further "diversify" who gets petroleum drilling rights in the country. Instead of giving most of the mineral prospecting rights to Chinese companies, perhaps French companies can get a bigger piece of the action. That was the main purpose of Macron's visit there.
ANATOMY OF 3RD VISIT: MACRON IN REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Macron visited Republic of Congo, a former french colony, which managed to keep good relations with France while staunchly allied to the USSR. In this small country, it is not uncommon to come across military elites that received an education in Sorbonne before heading off to the Soviet Military Academy. The visit in the Republic of Congo seemed to have gone relatively well.
Macron met with the local political opposition groups who did not protest French influence in the country. In fact, they all urged Macron to plead with Congolese President Denis Saussou-Nguesso to release from jail the two politicians who had contested against him in the 2016 Presidential elections.
The French leader declared that France would build a monument in the Congolese capital city of Brazzaville to honour all the Africans who died in World War II fighting on behalf of Charles De Gaulle's Free French Forces.
ANATOMY OF 4TH VISIT: MACRON IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Now, the most interesting visit is Macron's visit to the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo, which was never a french colony. This huge francophone African nation was once upon a time a private colony of Belgian King Leopold II before it went on to become an official colony of the Belgian state.
Ever since the Belgians pulled out after a failed attempt to hang onto their mineral-rich colony, Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C) had been under the neocolonial influence of France, which assumed the position of a "godfather". So despite not having experienced French colonialism, citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo seem to be catching a whiff of the anti-French sentiment hanging in the air.
Macron had hardly stepped out of the aeroplane in Kinshasa, the capital city of D.R.C, when small crowds of demonstrators hit the streets with Russian flags in tow.
Hearing about these demonstrations, an affronted Macron delivered a blistering speech to a Congolese audience, arguing that “France is not responsible for Africa's problems with sovereignty”.
With that speech, Macron blew away huge portions of the gains he had made from the reconciliatory trip. The President of D.R.C, Félix Tshisekedi, gave his own speech, in which he condemned Western nations for disrespecting Africa and always believing they understand the needs of Africa better than Africans.
Rather than remain politely silent, Macron screeched, "it is not true!" at the D.R.C President. And a brief argument ensued between the two Presidents. By the time it was over, whatever Macron had gained from his Africa trip had evaporated into thin air. Most likely, this arrogant outburst would be broadcast across francophone Africa where it is guaranteed to further fuel anti-French sentiments.
THE END
Dear reader, if you like my work and feel like making a small donation, then kindly make for my Digital Tip Jar at Buy Me A Coffee