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France’s footprint on Africa began in 1830 with the colonization process in Algeria and continued decades later in the Congo, Tunisia and the island of Madagascar. Those were times when the European powers penetrated the African continent and distributed it like a cake. After the wave of African independences, France continued to influence independent governments, even with a military presence in some of them, such as the current case of Mali.
By the early 20th century, France’s domination of Africa had spread so successfully that French West Africa was officially created in 1904, including eight countries. A campaign that was further extended to French Equatorial Africa, with new colonized territories such as Gabon, Congo, Chad and the current Central African Republic.
Judging from the 1958 images, during General Charles de Gaulle’s tour of the French possessions in West Africa, it is clear that his presence was highly celebrated by the local population. But the high esteem that the general enjoyed in Africa should not be misunderstood, that Africans wanted to continue under the French mantle. There were requests for independence in all African countries and by 1960 17 countries got it, in a kind of domino effect.
But not all countries achieved independence through diplomatic channels. In fact, one of the most regrettable cases was the Algerian independence process.
Algeria, the colony that France wanted to retain at all costs
Algeria suffered a liberation process that cost it a war of eight long years, from 1954 to 1962. The Algerian National Liberation Front acted as a guerilla that fought with blood and fire the French army and the so-called ‘harkis’, combatants locals on the French side.
France had just lost Indochina, its great colony in Asia, and it would not allow itself to lose its oldest and next colony in Africa. So he launched a violent repression of hostilities carried out by the National Liberation Front.
Finally in 1962, with a balance of 1.5 million Algerians dead, and after an overwhelming independence referendum, the Evian Accords were signed, in which France granted Algeria its sovereign right to self-govern.
France’s responsibility in the 1994 Rwandan genocide
Despite decolonization and the feeling of a free Africa, the tortuous episodes that involved France on this continent continued.
One of the most notorious cases today is the responsibility of France in the Rwandan Genocide. In 1994 and for 100 days, the Hutu government carried out an attempt to exterminate the Tutsi population in which around 800,000 people died.
In 2017, the Rwandan government commissioned the Washington-based law firm Levy Firestones Muse with a report that concluded that “the French government could foresee that genocide was coming.” In addition, it is stated in the report that “French officials armed, advised, trained, equipped and protected the Government of Rwanda, without paying attention (…) to the destruction and death of the Tutsis.”
In May 2021, President Macron visited Rwanda and acknowledged French responsibility for the genocide. “By being with you today, with humility and respect, I recognize our responsibilities. It is, therefore, a matter of continuing the work of knowledge and truth that only allows the rigorous work of researchers and historians,” said the French president at an event in Kigali.
Mali, the African country where France intervenes with thousands of soldiers in a war against terrorism
Another of the African countries where in recent years the legitimacy of France in the intervention of its internal affairs has been questioned is Mali.
In order to quell the expansion of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, then-President François Hollande ordered Operation ‘Serval’ on January 11, 2013. This operation was followed by Operation ‘Barkhane’, launched on January 1 August 2014, in which France deployed 4,500 soldiers in the Sahel region.
The French military penetration aroused the indignation of the Malian people. With harangues of “Down with France” or “France, get out”, Malian protesters demanded the departure of French troops from their territory with protests at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020.
60 years after gaining independence from France, Mali is still under French military intervention despite Macron’s promise to phase out his troops in the Sahel.
Like Mali, Rwanda and Algeria, many African countries have suffered injuries from France’s role as an imperial power. A tortuous relationship that currently seeks to reinvent itself.
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