After a dramatic diminishing of its influence in Africa in recent years, France is seeking a reset of its relationship with the continent. But a moment that went viral at a summit in Nairobi yesterday struck a bum note.
Macron’s unsteady reset in Africa
In the middle of a youth forum at Nairobi University on Monday, Emmanuel Macron interrupted one of the speakers, walking onstage to scold the audience for talking among themselves during the presentation. Repeatedly shouting “hey” to quieten the chatter, he said they were showing a lack of respect and should take their private conversations outside.
“I’m sorry guys but it’s impossible to speak about culture, to have people like that, super inspired, coming here, making a speech, with such a noise,” he said.
“If you want to stay here, we listen to the people and we’re playing the same game. Okay?”
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The intervention made for the most widely broadcast video clip from the Africa Forward summit in Nairobi and it gave precisely the opposite impression to that which the French president hoped the event would convey.
The first summit between France and Africa to be hosted in an English-speaking country, the two-day meeting was designed as a reset of the relationship with a continent where its influence has been shrinking.
For more half a century after its former African colonies won independence, France sought to retain economic, political and military dominance over them through a policy known as Françafrique. This saw Paris back authoritarian regimes and maintain a permanent military presence, particularly in the Sahel region that sits below the Sahara desert and stretches across Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
French influence became increasingly unpopular and a wave of coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger after 2020 saw French forces expelled, often replaced by Russian mercenaries.
By staging his summit with 30 African leaders in the capital of Kenya, a former British colony, Macron hoped to signal a shift away from France’s role as a former colonial power to a partnership of equals with Africa.
The shift reflects a new reality that sees the European Union compete with the United States, China and countries such as Russia, India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for investment opportunities and access to Africa’s raw materials. They all hope to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to create an integrated market for goods and services for the continent’s 1.4 billion people.
“Between France and Africa, there are passions. But what matters are the structural shifts in this relationship. The issue of sovereignty has returned to the forefront, and new voices have emerged in Africa,” the Cameroonian historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe told Le Monde this week.
“The centre of gravity in the relationship has shifted. Now, it is in Africa. The days when France held a monopoly in its former sphere of influence and made all the decisions are over.”
Macron accused the Chinese of operating a predatory policy of extracting minerals from Africa and processing them in China, creating global dependencies. He said Europe was proposing a new model of shared autonomy with Africa so that neither side would become dependent on what he called “a new empire”.
At the summit on Monday, the French president announced €23 billion investment in Africa focused on energy transition, digital and AI, the maritime economy and agriculture. But ahead of the meeting, Kenya’s president, William Ruto, made clear that Africa’s renewed focus on sovereignty extended beyond investment and economic development.
“Every item on the agenda, every conversation, and every commitment is aimed at one thing: An Africa that is at the forefront of global affairs, shaping its own destiny, determining its own future and influencing the global discourse,” he said.
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