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In this second post in the series, I'm going to talk about relations between West Africa and France. It's one of the hot topics of September, since the putsch/coup in Niger. To understand the significance of this, you have to remember that there was a a coup d'état in Mali in 2021 and in Burkina Faso in 2022, two countries neighbouring Niger. And now it's in Gabon, another strategic country for France. Gabon suppplies Total (french national oil company) with oil, as well as manganese (interesting for batteries), uranium and gold. Niger is a supplier of uranium for French nuclear power plants. Burkina Faso is known for gold, as is Mali. These 4 countries were part of what we call «Françafrique» (French Africa). If French colonialism is officially dead, most countries still have a link with France, through dictatorships or authoritarian powers more or less installed by France.
So, the coup in these 4 countries could be seen as a good news. But it's not that simple because behind the men who carried out these coups, there's the shadow of the Russian group Wagner (mercenary group operating both in Africa and Ukraine). It's not the bad against the good. In these countries, the US and China have also manoeuvred to at least install a soft power and «drive out the Frenchs». If the populations of these countries are poor, countries are often rich because of their exportations. In France, far-right and right wing parties are nostalgic for the era of colonialism and are very angry with president Emmanuel Macron. His two five-year terms have been very bad for the France's diplomatic role. Macron has destroyed the diplomatic corps for many observers and is not the «golden boy» for politics that he could have been at the beginning.
The other subject issue these coup is the rise of Islamic terrorist groups. In reality, they are groups of marauders, who vaguely claim to follow a kind of «self-made» Islam but ISIS and AlQuaeda have found a new playing field. West Africa has several problems of ethnic and religious rivalry. Côte d'Ivoire or Cameroon have seen terrorist attacks in recent years. Rumours make the news in some isolated communities and then in the big cities. It's rooted in the Libyan civil war and the fall of Khadafi with many tribal groups and weapons that went to neighbouring countries.
The saddest thing in that situation is for the Nigerians, the Burknabes, the Malians of the Gaboneses. The new ruling juntas have made many promises but you know the saying : «promises only binds those who believe in them». The situation is getting worse with the risk of conflict or other coups. France is now a minor player in this zone. There's an important military base in Chad, more tothe east, another very important country in the migrations from the hors of Africa to Europe.
Recently, Morocco suffered a terrible earthquake that killed more than 3000 people. There are 1.5 million Moroccans in France. But diplomatic relations between the two countries are at their worst. Morocco called for help from the UK, Spain, Qatar and the UAE .... but not from France. Now the main subject is the criticism on how the Morocco is managing the catastrophe and why they don't call France....Remember that France has difficulties to manage a European Football final or Rugby World Cup games... And after floods in South of France, village had no roads for 2 years. So we are not in a good position to criticise other countries for their management of natural disasters. That's how French media and politics work, with arrogance and condescension.
And at the same time in France, we are talking about clothing : the banning of the abaya in schools, a long dress that covers the whole body and comes from middle-east and tests on school uniforms. The French are making progress because two years ago, we were talking about the size of crop-tops in schools, after a debate about burkinis on the beach. I hope we'll soon be talking about the type of uniform for girls, whether skirt, dress, trousers, Bermuda shorts or perhaps the authorised colours. This is all coming from our new minister for education (and maybe soon clothing?), just to avoid talking about teachers's salaries, the lack of teachers, schools in disrepair…or bullying and harassment with just another case this month, despite all the promises of the last minister or the first lady. In France communication is not action. But you knew it, if you know President «make our planet great again» Macron.
Just remember that Aristide Briand, a French deputy who inspired in 1905 the law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, base of french secularism, said : «The silence of the bill on the subject of ecclesiastical dress... is not the result of an omission but, on the contrary, of a carefully considered deliberation. It seemed to the Committee that it would be to incur, for a result that was more than problematic, the reproach of intolerance and even to expose oneself to an even more serious danger, ridicule, to wish, by means of a law whose aim is to establish in this country a system of freedom from the point of view of religion to impose on ministers of religion the obligation to change the cut of their vestments? the day after the separation, a garment like any other, available to all citizens accessible to all citizens, whether priests or not. This was the only solution that seemed to us to be consistent with the very principle of separation. principle of separation...». It's not just the abayas that are a problem, but also long garments such as dresses and trousers, as if we absolutely wanted to see the flesh of young girls. From secularism to ultra-laicism.
We shouldn't be surprised to see people taking advantage of these bad statements to do some French bashing in certain African countries. The better at French bashing will always be the... French themselves ;-)
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