2024 ended badly for Nigeria’s diplomatic posture as neighboring Niger accused the country of collaborating with France to destabilize it.
In a Christmas Day interview, Nigerienne strongman General Abdourahmane Tchiani accused France of allying with militant groups in the Lake Chad region to undermine Niger’s security, allegedly with Nigeria’s knowledge.
The AFP quoted the Nigerienne leader as saying, “Nigerian authorities are not unaware of this underhanded move.”
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, hotly denied the claim, saying that the allegations were “baseless” and “false.” According to Ribadu, “Nigeria would never “sabotage Niger or allow any disaster to befall it.”
In another development, Algerian President Tebboune strongly criticizes France for its lingering colonial impact.
“During a parliamentary address outlining his first term’s achievements and his agenda for a second term that began in September. The Algerian leader said that his country seeks only acknowledgment, not material compensation, for French crimes between 1830 and 1962. “The number of Algerian martyrs throughout the 132 years of colonization is 5.6 million, and no amount of money can compensate for the loss of even one martyr during the resistance or armed struggle.”
Algeria’s critique followed a severe political crisis with France, involving ambassador withdrawals and French intelligence accusations of “hostile acts” on Algerian soil.
Tebboune also recalled French colonial atrocities under General Thomas Robert Bugeaud, governor-general of Algeria from 1841-1847, whom he labeled “genocidal,” and reiterated calls for France to return 500 Algerian skulls taken to Paris in the 19th century.” – @sputnik_africa
France’s arrogance also angered the Turks. “Turkish FM Hakan Fidan says Ankara doesn’t take ‘small European countries’ like France seriously on Syria. His words were incendiary: “Some small European countries participating in military operations in Syria under the US umbrella are attempting to further their own interests by speaking out on certain issues, but this brings no real benefit to themselves or the region,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday.
“We do not engage with countries that try to hide behind America’s power while advancing their own agendas.”- @Slavyangrad
I frequently ask, but I never get an answer: what exactly do they serve in their water in Europe to make people so self-reverentially racially arrogant?
Why do Europeans remain so arrogant to believe that they can still gallivant around the world in 2024 to peddle racial and colonial arrogance like their fathers did?
With their finished fortunes and crumbling edifices – social, economic, and political – why do we still have French and Europeans involved themselves in Africa’s affairs in this age? Do we see Africans meddling in the affairs of Europe? Would Europeans even allow that?
These are not questions posed for rhetorical embellishments; they are genuine ones everyone should ask.
Take the case of Emmanuel Macron, that physical, mental, and intellectual lilliputian who cannot manage the affairs of his France, where everything is collapsing, but believes himself capable of saving the world. The uncultured former bank teller trots around the globe like a Napoleon wannabe, from the Sahel to Micronesia to the Caucasus to Ukraine, playing the Messiah, even while his country’s economy is being eviscerated.
If France had once been celebrated as the cradle of liberty, equality, and fraternity (at least in its self-generated lullabies), no one who watches events in that country today would see anything that remotely resembles liberty or equality. The ghosts of its imperial past and the unfathomable arrogance of its present leadership have turned the country into a farcical mess. The French society is polarized and fractured beyond repair. The French economy is in tatters, and its politics and its elections are butts of joke.
All these have not prevented the dwarfish Macron from attempting to punch above his tiny weight.
A striking example of this came during his controversial visits to the French overseas territories of Guadeloupe (late 2023) and Mayotte (late December 2024). Both territories were reeling from the aftermath of devastating cyclones. Macron’s uncultured and racially arrogant behavior during these trips did more to underline France’s enduring colonial mindset than to alleviate the anger of its citizens.
Cyclone Yasmine struck Mayotte in December 2024 and left widespread destruction. It displaced thousands and exposed the fragility of the island’s infrastructure – very Third-Worldly things. Mayotte is one of France’s poorest overseas territories, and it has long suffered from underinvestment and neglect, leaving its residents ill-equipped to withstand such massive disasters.
People were already angry, yet when Macron visited the island days later, rather than for him to sing a sympathetic note, his haughty and condescending attitude only stoked the already simmering resentment.
As he toured the ravaged areas, Macron was met by crowds of frustrated locals who accused Paris of ignoring their plight. One protestor shouted, “We are forgotten by France until disaster strikes!” Another demanded why the government had not allocated funds for cyclone preparedness, yelling, “Do we not deserve the same protection as the mainland?”
Rather than address these grievances with understanding and empathy, the French president, who was supposed to be a sympathetic father, lost his temper and took umbrage. Macron retorted, raising his voice rather unpresidentially, “France has done more for Mayotte than you realize. You should recognize the privilege of being part of the Republic!”
It was like pouring petrol on a raging inferno, which triggered a furious response. One resident shouted back at the French President, “Privilege? Living in poverty and waiting for scraps from Paris is not a privilege!” Another fumed, “If we are part of the Republic, treat us like it!”
Macron’s behavior in Mayotte is a repeat performance of the same haughty behavior he displayed in Guadeloupe, struck by Hurricane Tammy weeks before his visit in late 2023. Also, residents vented their anger at being treated as second-class citizens. A protestor declared, “France remembers us when it wants to brag about its empire but forgets us when we need help!” Lacking emotional intelligence, Macron dismissively responded by urging the residents to be “grateful” for their ties to France.
Of course, his imperial arrogance only deepened the discontent.
France’s strained relations with Azerbaijan also boiled over recently. The tension arose after attempts by France to position itself as a moral arbiter in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, siding with Armenia and pushing for sanctions against Azerbaijan appear to have touched the wrong nerves in Baku with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev openly criticizing Macron in an explosive interview.
The Baku strongman did not pull any punches as he lambasted Macron’s hypocrisy, “France, a country that colonized half the world and committed unspeakable crimes, dares to lecture us on human rights? This is laughable! Macron should worry about the unrest in his own country before pretending to be a global savior.”
Africa has also woken up to France’s neocolonial hanky-panky, with the people of the Sahel leading the way.
No other region in the world best exemplifies France’s colonial sins more starkly than Africa, where a wave of anti-French sentiment has swept through former colonies in recent years. From Mali to Niger, Burkina Faso to the Central African Republic, African nations are ousting French troops, canceling military agreements, and demanding the removal of French companies noted for their criminal exploitative business practices. Senegal joined the ranks in late December 2024. Even the Ivory Coast, once considered an impregnable French bastion in Africa, announced that it is also sending French troops home.
The reasons for this are deeply rooted in history. France’s engagement with Africa began with the brutal transatlantic slave trade, during which millions of Africans were kidnapped and transported to work on French plantations in the Americas. Without a pause, slavery was swiftly followed by centuries of colonial exploitation after the Berlin Conference sundered Africa into colonial plantations.
More than any other colonial power, France mercilessly plundered Africa’s resources, imposed its language and culture, and violently suppressed any resistance to its rule. And, unlike the other colonialists, the French stubbornly refused to yield their illegal possessions.
Despite attempts by European hagiographers at historical revanchism, colonialism was an outright theft. Europe, France included, became wealthy by ruthlessly extracting African wealth while leaving local populations impoverished and disenfranchised.
Of course, they won’t teach you that at the Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, or Cambridge.
Those who argued that building roads, railways, and infrastructure was beneficial forgot to say that the same were not built to benefit Africans but to facilitate the extraction of resources. France’s infamous “mission civilisatrice” (civilizing mission) was a thin veneer for a system of brutal repression and wholesale cultural erasure.
Can we not argue with the same twisted logic that the Nazis built better autobahns in the European countries they conquered?
When the wind of change blew, and other powers granted independence to their colonies in the 1960s, France maintained control through the Pacte Coloniale, a series of agreements that allowed it to dominate its former colonies’ economies, currencies, and political systems. Under this noxious system, 14 African nations were required to deposit their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury, effectively giving France control over their fiscal and monetary systems.
To maintain its iron-grip dominance, France supported a series of brutal autocratic leaders willing to act as its proxies. Leaders like Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Côte d’Ivoire and Omar Bongo in Gabon ruled with an iron fist, enriching themselves while safeguarding French interests.
French Military bases dotted across Africa ensured that any leader who strayed from the French line could be swiftly removed, often through coups engineered with French support. France has organized more coups in Africa than all the other foreign powers combined.
Luckily for Africa, the younger generation of Africans is rising to reject France’s neocolonial exploitatively paternalistic relationship. Unlike their parents, our youth see France not as a benevolent partner but as a parasitic force stifling their nations’ growth and sovereignty.
Protests in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad have featured slogans like “France dégage!” (France, get out!) and have called for partnerships with nations that respect African sovereignty, such as Russia and China.
It is not the fact that Africans are rising against French and European domination and exploitation that is surprising. What baffles greatly is the assumption by present-day Europeans that Africans will put up with their predation of Africa forever.
European scholars and media continue to tell their brainwashed, sheepish citizens stupid lies about how they help Africa and how their intervention is for the benefit of the continent. They are, however, hard-pressed to name a single success story for their five hundred-plus years of rendering help. And they never answer the question of why they do not declare a victory and leave Africa alone
In their sober moments, even French leaders occasionally acknowledged the importance of Africa to their country’s economy. Former President Jacques Chirac once admitted, “Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power.” Even the loutish Macron himself, in a rare moment of candor, remarked that Africa’s youth represent a challenge to France’s influence, saying, “We must listen to the anger of African youth, or we will lose them.”
It was too late. France lost Africa precisely because listening had never been France’s strong suit. Instead of addressing the root causes of the discontent, France arrogantly continued to talk down to Africans and doubled down on its paternalistic rhetoric. On January 5, 2025, the idiotic Macron once again put his feet in his mouth and accused Africans of not being grateful for France’s help in fighting terrorism. Of course, the moron got his earful. Many African leaders gave him the historical lessons they forgot to teach him in his country.
Although they missed the memo, the rest of the world is no longer interested in enduring France/Europe’s arrogant, haughty, and duplicitous manners.
Unfortunately for France and Europe, racial arrogance closed their eyes to the fact that the era of European domination was blessedly over. As Paul Satre put it: “The time of the Boomerang has arrived. In the past, Europe made history; today, history is being made of it.”
Europeans refused to learn that to salvage their relationships with Africa and other parts of the Global South, they must fundamentally change their approach. The era of condescension, coercion, and exploitation must give way to one of mutual respect, equality, and genuine partnership. Europeans must learn how to become and behave like normal human beings – respect the space and cultures of other people. They must discover the joy of engaging in honorable commercial intercourse with Africa and the Global South without seeking undue advantages through violence or agencies like the IMF and the badly misnamed World Bank.
No African should be interested in any relationship with any foreign powers, especially brutal colonialists, unless it is based on full respect for national independence and sovereignty.
Of course, for France, this would mean ending odious agreements like the Pacte Coloniale. It would also mean respecting African cultures and traditions rather than imposing French values, however delirious French people feel about them. And it would mean that French and Europeans start engaging in honest, transparent commercial relationships without resorting to bribery, intimidation, or other forms of chicanery.
These cannot come by until France is prepared to reckon with its history. This would require a complete and honest acknowledgment of its colonial crimes, accompanied by reparations and heartfelt apologies. As the Algerian president suggested, this would go a long way toward healing old wounds.
President Macron’s haughty attempt at a half-hearted apology for colonialism in Algeria was met with scorn precisely because the Algerians perceived it as lacking in sincerity and saw it as a political ploy.
The younger generation of Africans is not interested in being patronized or controlled, most especially by haughty and racist genocidal Europeans. The New Africans want partnerships based on mutual respect and equality, not aggression, violence, or domination.
France must shed its delusions and recognize that its future in Africa will depend on its ability to adapt to this new reality. Anything else will only cause pain and humiliation from its former dependable vassals.
France must shed its imperial arrogance and behave like a normal country that relies on diplomacy, respects sovereignty, and values cultural diversity. Only then can it hope to repair its tarnished reputation and build lasting relationships with nations that are no longer willing to be treated as subjects or vassals.
As partially enumerated above, France’s sins are many, but redemption is still possible. Africans are forgiving, and we do not bear grudges against those who make sincere penance. However, our culture demands that repentance be accompanied by humility and courage to change.
Emmanuel Macron must climb down from his high horse and lead the way.
©️ Fẹ̀mi Akọ̀mọ̀làfẹ̀
(Farmer, Writer, Published Author, Essayist, Satirist, and Social Commentator.)
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