Macron’s African pivot: the same condescension in new packaging
For several years, Emmanuel Macron has multiplied his trips to Africa, his polished speeches, and his investment promises. According to the Élysée, France has finally understood: Françafrique is over, replaced by an “equal partnership” with Africa. But behind this cleverly repeated formula, the same condescension seeps through. As if France, the sole enlightened power, now grants Africa the privilege of equality. As if equality were a favour, not a natural right.
The problem is this: you do not decree equality with your former colony after decades of humiliation, plunder, and interference.
The history of France in Africa is not “heavy” by accident: the CFA franc, complicity with dictatorial regimes, unsolicited military interventions, resource extraction without fair sharing.
Today, faced with the rise of China and Russia, Paris is panicking. Suddenly, Africa becomes a “partner.” Suddenly, young Africans deserve respect.
But these same young people are not fooled. They know this new discourse was born not of moral awakening, but of geopolitical calculation. France is losing ground; it wants to regain it.
And to do so, it uses the same methods: a seductive diplomacy where it speaks of equality while imposing its views, its companies, its state.
Ironically, it is precisely France a power with an still-unsettled colonial past that now comes to “teach” Africans what a good partnership is.
What France refuses to understand is that equality is not proclaimed at a rally; it is proven through actions: sincere military withdrawal, frank revision of monetary agreements, historical reparation, and above all, an end to the haughty posture of still believing it can give lessons. As long as Paris believes Africa has “everything to gain” from partnership with France as if the reverse were unthinkable the partnership remains a fiction.
The African youth of today do not ask for crumbs of equality. They ask to stop being offered charity speeches. Condescension, however polite, remains an insult.
Hadja KOUROUMA
