2023-11-04 05:00:32
This November 28, 2017, the atmosphere is feverish in the central amphitheater of the Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, built with Libyan funds during the era of Muammar Gaddafi. “There is no longer any African policy for France”affirms Emmanuel Macron to the applause of the students, whom he tries to get on his side. “I am like you, from a generation that never knew Africa as a colonized continent… I am from a generation whose most beautiful memories is the victory of Nelson Mandela… I am from a generation of French people for whom the crimes of colonization are incontestable… I am from a generation where we do not come and tell Africa what it must do”, he proclaims, without measuring all that, beyond age, separates him from his audience. The speech is intended to be foundational. It displays the objective of renewing the link between the former colonial power and this part of the continent that it colonized.
An incident will also mark people’s minds during this conference. Questioned on the issue of recurring power cuts in Burkina Faso, the Head of State calls on his Burkinabe counterpart at the time, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, present at his side. “But I don’t want to deal with electricity in universities in Burkina Faso! That’s the president’s job.”, he said. At the same time, his counterpart slips away to satisfy, we will later understand, a pressing need. “So he goes… Stay there!” », says the French president, in a familiar, slightly mocking tone, which many will consider paternalistic. And he concludes: “He went to fix the air conditioning. »
Six years later, while the forced withdrawal of some 1,500 French soldiers deployed in Niger, initiated at the beginning of October and following the military coup of July 26, constitutes a major failure for the tenant of the Elysée, the The anecdote is remembered. “The quip had more impact than anything he said during his visitremembers a diplomat. Emmanuel Macron, due to his age, could have been very popular in Africa, but this is not the case, because his direct style, suggesting to his interlocutors to take charge rather than complain, has difficulty getting through . »
As for the Ouagadougou speech, it showed its limits. Nothing, not even the voluntarism displayed then, seems to be able to stem the decline of French influence in French-speaking Africa since putschist soldiers, who, from Mali (2020) to Burkina Faso (2022) then to Niger (2023), have made – with a certain popular success – the questioning of the link with Paris their primary political fuel.
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