France has lost its influence in Africa in recent decades. The fault with a diplomacy based exclusively on the interests of the Hexagon and an arrogance which Paris is struggling to get rid of.
“In Paris, we never doubt African issues. We know. From the top of the State to technical assistants, we are more often in a position to give lessons than to learn ”. This sentence is taken from Antoine Glaser's book, “Arrogant comme un Français en Afrique”, released in 2016, and shows how French leaders are above ground when it comes to African issues. Five years later, France, which gives lessons, does not seem to have seen its copy again. At the end of 2020, Mediapart denounced "a diplomacy based on security and economic concerns, silent when it comes to defending human rights". The land of the Enlightenment has broken down: what lessons can France still dare to give, which rather needs electricians as its "lights" are now extinct?
In fact, it has been several decades since France has no human rights country in name. And the arrogance of Paris did not help. France “has been pseudo-humanitarian in Biafra, tragicomic in the Central African Republic under Bokassa, dramatic with the Rwandan genocide, pathetic in Ivory Coast and even under the United Nations mandate, inconsistent in Libya, desperately alone in Mali. And, it is always the presumption of knowing the situation and the men which pushes it to the fault ”, sums up quite rightly Glaser. Without forgetting Michele Alliot-Marie's proposal to send CRS companies to Tunisia to suppress the revolutionaries in 2011, thus alienating a youth who expected a minimum of support.
A realpolitik based on the defense of French interests
It's a fact: France can no longer give lessons to the world when, on his own soil, Emmanuel Macron himself is criticized for his lack of consideration for human rights. The ban on pro-Palestinian protests in recent days shows more that Paris is no longer the champion of human rights. And the silence of the Elysee Palace in the face of the Rohingya genocide, then recently in the face of the repression of the Uyghurs in China, has finished putting an end to this image of a country of the Enlightenment. Emmanuel Macron is, on the continent, in the process of recreating the foundations of Françafrique, relying on an increasingly assumed realpolitik, which is based as much on security needs as on the defense of French interests on the continent. .
However, Paris still has a certain force of persuasion. In particular through a right of veto at the UN Security Council or by conditioning its distributions of financial aid. Suddenly, France has its own scale of frequentability and distributes good and bad points to African leaders, whom it considers sometimes as dictators, sometimes as allies. The French president does not hesitate to summon - rather than invite - African heads of state to the forecourt of the Elysee. France has learned the art of knitting political thoughts according to its interests, making Idriss Déby its darling, even if it means forgetting its decades of dictatorships, and blacklisting Faure Gnassingbé, finally rehabilitated for the needs of the blue-white flag -Red.
Le Drian, favorite lawyer of African dictators
In addition to the African cell of the Elysee, France can also count on the expertise of Jean-Yves Le Drian, who has become the lawyer of African dictators, like Paul Biya who decorated the minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of 2019. Successive support for Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, Idriss Déby and Ali Bongo was conditioned by military and security cooperation between Paris and African capitals. Alliances of circumstance, but above all fluctuating according to the news. Gabon, for example, is now trying to rally the Commonwealth and seems to no longer want to play the game of musical chairs with France.
This diplomacy of support for dictatorships is moreover almost assumed by Paris. Although thehe armed forces of several countries attack civilians, France continues to cooperate militarily with these countries. "Is it permissible to continue delivering training and weapons for decades to armed forces whose usual methods are based on repression?" “, Already asked in 2016 associations and personalities of civil society. French diplomats do not care about the situation of populations in certain African countries, as long as Paris finds interests there, whether military or economic.
France is no longer up to date
Especially since France makes many mistakes, which are sometimes very expensive. As when Paris assured Ben Ali of his support in early 2011. Or when Emmanuel Macron called Ibrahim Boubacar Kéita, president of Mali, a few hours before the latter was dismissed by the military and imprisoned, again to assure him of the support of Paris . France seems to be out of fashion in Africa, and anti-French sentiment is growing all over the continent. Especially when Paris believes, without batting an eyelid, that Africa is its rear base. “The Sahel is the southern border of France,” Jean-Yves Le Drian recently declared, while the Malians increasingly question the French military presence on their soil.
Consequence: Africa is gradually moving away from France. Francophone Africa, like Gabon and Rwanda long before it, is no longer the home of Paris. Blame it on diplomacy based exclusively on security and French interests in Africa. But also to a now blatant incompetence: the French rulers no longer understand the issues at stake in Africa, and it is not Franck Paris, the “Mr. Africa” of the Elysée Palace, who will change anything there. Especially since the arrogance of the French in Africa, which Antoine Glaser deplored in 2016, is still omnipresent.
Paris is missing the point and no longer even understands the issues at stake in Algeria, Tunisia or Senegal, where anti-French sentiment is growing year after year. Because Africa is not just its leaders. And the new generations are aware of the fool's game offered by Paris. As a result, Russia, China and the United Kingdom have free rein on the continent. Thanks in particular to what the anti-globalization activist Aminata Dramane Traoré defines as "the coming of age of a generation which does not feel concerned by what France has been able to represent for its elders" and "which looks less and less towards she ".