{"id":262230,"date":"2024-05-13T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=262230"},"modified":"2024-07-01T08:19:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T07:19:55","slug":"africa-to-france-get-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/05\/africa-to-france-get-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa to France: \u2018Get Out!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The imperial nations of Europe carved up Africa into colonies, with the democratic nations of Britain and France claiming the lion\u2019s share.<\/p><\/div>\n

After decades of brewing anti-imperialist sentiment in the Sahel, events in the region are now unfolding at a rapid pace. France has long sought to undermine African sovereignty since the national liberation struggles of the twentieth century. But Africa would not tolerate French dominion then, nor will it now. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

9 May 2024 <\/em>– On 2 October 1958, Guinea declared its independence from France. Guinea\u2019s President Ahmed S\u00e9kou Tour\u00e9 clashed against France\u2019s President Charles De Gaulle, who tried to strong arm Tour\u00e9 into abandoning the project for independence. Tour\u00e9 said of De Gaulle\u2019s threats, \u2018Guinea prefers poverty in freedom to riches in slavery\u2019. In 1960, the French government launched a covert operation called Operation Persil to undermine Guinea and overthrow Tour\u00e9. The operation was named after a laundry detergent, used to wash away dirt. This provides a clear window into the French attitude toward Tour\u00e9\u2019s government. France\u2019s weapons shipment to opposition groups in Guinea was interdicted in Senegal, whose President Mamadou Dia complained to the French government. France would not tolerate African independence, but the people of Africa would not tolerate French dominion.<\/p>\n

That fervour for African sovereignty remains intact. \u2018France, get out\u2019 was the slogan then and remains the slogan now, from Senegal to Niger. To better understand recent developments in this struggle, the rest of this newsletter features a briefing from No Cold War<\/a> and the West Africa Peoples\u2019 Organisation<\/a> on the manifestation of that sentiment in the Sahel.<\/p>\n

Briefing 13: The Sahel Seeks Sovereignty<\/h3>\n

The call \u2018La<\/i> France degage!\u2019 <\/i>(\u2018France, get out!\u2019), against the ongoing legacy of French colonialism in the region, has long echoed across West Africa. In recent years, this call has reached a new pitch of intensity, from the 2018 grassroots movements in Senegal and newly elected President Bassirou Diomaye Faye\u2019s campaign promise to unshackle<\/a> his country from the neocolonial monetary system of the CFA franc to the popularly supported military coups<\/a> in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger and the ejection of French military forces from these countries between 2021 and 2023.<\/p>\n

The military-led governments of the central Sahelian states (Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger) have taken steps to wrestle their sovereignty from Western monopolies \u2013 such as reviewing mining codes and contracts and expelling foreign militaries \u2013 and to establish new regional cooperation platforms. On 16 September 2023, the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger signed the Liptako-Gourma Charter<\/a>, a mutual defence pact that established the Alliance of Sahel States. This trilateral partnership is a response to the threats of military intervention and economic sanctions that have been levied against Niger by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) following the July 2023 popular coup that took place in the country.<\/p>\n

A few months after reaching this defence cooperation agreement, the three countries withdrew from the ECOWAS regional bloc. Some political commentators have claimed<\/a> that these events \u2013 combined with the ejection of French military forces from the region \u2013 \u2018spell trouble\u2019 for regional social security, economic development, political stability, and regional integration. What is behind the tidal wave sweeping through the Sahel, and what does it mean for the region?<\/p>\n

The Legacy of French Colonialism<\/h3>\n

Anti-imperialist sentiment has been brewing in the Sahel for years. To look at the case of Niger, which is emblematic of the wave of resistance in the region, during the July 2023 coup, the people took to the streets against the French colonial hangover that has facilitated rampant, structural corruption and disenfranchised large sectors of the population.<\/p>\n

Much of this corruption has taken place in Niger\u2019s mining sector, which represents one of the world\u2019s largest high-grade uranium deposits. For instance, in 2014, prior to the coup, then Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou lowered taxes on mining activities that directly benefited<\/a> French monopolies, receiving indirect pay outs in return. Meanwhile, the French military in Niger operated as the gendarme for mining companies and against those seeking to migrate to Europe.<\/p>\n

Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Mines de l\u2019A\u00efr (Soma\u00efr), a purported \u2018joint venture\u2019 between Niger and France in the uranium industry, is yet another example of the continued French influence in the region and on the continent. While France\u2019s Atomic Energy Commission and two French companies own<\/a> 85% of the company, Niger\u2019s government owns a mere 15%. While close to half of Niger\u2019s population lives<\/a> below the poverty line and 90%<\/a> lives without electricity, as of 2013 uranium from Niger powers<\/a> one in three lightbulbs in France. It should come as no surprise that, shortly after the 2023 coup, Nigerien citizens seized the French embassy and military base in the capital of Niamey. France withdrew its troops soon after.<\/p>\n

Sovereignty, Security, and Terrorism<\/h3>\n

On 16 March 2024, the Nigerien government revoked a decade-old military agreement with the United States, just two days after a US delegation met with local authorities to raise concerns over the nation\u2019s partnerships with Russia and Iran. In a public statement<\/a>, the government of Niger \u2018forcefully condemne[d] the condescending attitude, accompanied by the threat of retaliation, from the head of the US delegation towards the government and people of Niger\u2019. The statement added that \u2018Niger regrets the intention of the US delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and the types of partnerships that are capable of truly helping them fight terrorism at a time when the United States of America has unilaterally decided to suspend all cooperation\u2019. The government also cited the following as reasons for revoking the agreement with the US: the cost it has inflicted upon Nigerien taxpayers, the lack of communication around domestic operations and US military base activities, unauthorised aircraft movements, and the ineffectiveness of its so-called counter-terrorism work.<\/p>\n

The US has established the single largest foreign military presence on the African continent, beginning with the 2002 Pan-Sahel Initiative and followed by the creation of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2007, which set up a significant network of US military bases<\/a> across the Sahel (of which there are nine in Niger alone as well as two in Mali and one in Burkina Faso). In 2007, US State Department adviser J. Peter Pham defined<\/a> AFRICOM\u2019s strategic objective to US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs as follows:<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that any amount of public relations work will fully quench anti-imperialist concerns that AFRICOM is fundamentally an attempt to erect a bulwark in Africa against trans-national terrorism and China\u2019s appetite for Africa\u2019s oil, minerals, and timber\u2026 The proposed structure of AFRICOM, consisting of four or five relatively small bases with no force deployments, means that these will be largely invisible even in their host countries and societies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the aftermath of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation\u2019s (NATO) war on Libya led by France and the US, the Sahel region has been embroiled in conflicts, many of them driven by emerging forms of jihadist armed activities, piracy, and smuggling. France and the US have used these conflicts as a pretext to increase their military interventions across the region. In 2014, France set up the G5 Sahel (a military arrangement that included Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) and expanded or opened new military bases in Gao, (Mali), N\u2019Djamena (Chad), Niamey (Niger), and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). In 2019, the US began conducting<\/a> drone strikes and aerial surveillance across the Sahel and the Sahara Desert from its Air Base 201 outside Agadez (Niger) \u2013 the largest construction effort in US Air Force history.<\/p>\n

The Global Terrorism Index found<\/a> that the Sahel region was the most impacted by terrorism in 2023, accounting for nearly half of all terrorism-related deaths and 26% of terrorist incidents worldwide. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger each ranked among the top ten countries most impacted by terrorism, a fact often held up to allege the failure of the new military-led governments. However, this reality predates the coups of 2021\u20132023 and instead speaks to the impact of US and French military intervention. Between 2011 (the year of NATO\u2019s war on Libya) and 2021 (the year of the first of the recent wave of Sahelian coups, in Mali), Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger soared<\/a> from positions 114, 40, and 50, respectively, on the index of countries most impacted by terrorism to 4, 7, and 8. It is clear that the US and French \u2018war on terrorism\u2019 has done little to improve security in the region and has in fact had the opposite effect.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Niankoye Lama (Guinea), Marche\u0301 de Zali <\/i>(\u2018Zali Market\u2019), 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Seeking New Partners and Paths<\/h3>\n

The people of the Sahel have grown disillusioned not only with the West\u2019s military strategies, as seen by the increasing security cooperation agreements with other countries, but also with Western economic policies that have yielded little social development. Despite the region\u2019s abundant energy resources (including Niger\u2019s aforementioned uranium reserves), the Sahel has some of the world\u2019s lowest levels of energy generation and access, with at least 51%<\/a> of the population unable to access electricity.<\/p>\n

Though the Alliance of Sahel States began as a defence pact, political autonomy and economic development are a core focus. This includes, for instance, pursuing joint energy projects and exploring the possibility of establishing regional civil nuclear power initiatives. Burkina Faso has already signed agreements with Rosatom, a state-owned Russian company, to build new power plants while Mali is advancing its application of atomic energy through the National Nuclear Programme, overseen by the Malian Radiation Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Alliance of Sahel States represents an attempt to uphold the demands of sovereignty and the right to self-determination \u2013 an agenda that the people of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali have poured into the streets to support.<\/p>\n

Events in the Sahel are unfolding at a rapid pace, but as the Malian novelist A\u00efcha Fofana wrote in La fourmili\u00e8re<\/i> (\u2018The Anthill\u2019) in 2006, modernisation is tempered by the rigidities and wisdom of the old ways. \u2018We have always been generous\u2019, the griot in La fourmili\u00e8re <\/i>says to a young man who has many ideas about transforming society. Patience is necessary. Change is coming. But it is coming at its own pace.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at<\/em> Globetrotter. He is the director of <\/em>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research<\/em><\/a> and a senior non-resident fellow at <\/em>Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies<\/em><\/a>, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including <\/em>The Darker Nations<\/a> and <\/em>The Poorer Nations<\/a>. His latest book is <\/em>Washington Bullets<\/a>, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thetricontinental.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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