West Africa and the rejection of French imperialism

The world is changing in spectacular ways. Only those able to see beyond their physical eyes can draw meaningful conclusions from world events. Unfortunately, for our country, we have not been able to create an environment where our children and even ourselves are able to balance our domestic issues with the happenings beyond our borders.

We are preoccupied, and our husbands argue about the size of the porridge we left for them upon returning from shebeen. As they argue, little do they realise that our neighbour being a drug dealer means that our children will soon become his customers, stealing our money. We are self-absorbed and pay little attention to the greater world outside our 800 000 square-kilometre national boundaries.

Those responsible for managing our international affairs are either incapable or themselves victims of our self-absorption. You only need to ask how many research centres we have in Namibia focusing on international affairs. You do not need to guess because the answer is zero.

Not even our institutions of higher learning.

The Namibia School of Diplomatic Studies that was launched a few months ago at the University of Namibia (Unam) is a glorified shortcut for government bureaucrats to receive certificates through short courses with a Unam logo, which they will use for promotions and jump the long queues of diplomatic postings.

It will conduct no research or engage in serious intellectual and political discourses on international relations – both as an activity and a field of study. So self-absorbed and disengaged from international activities that international organisations such as the United Nations, the African Union and the Southern Africa Development Community have repeatedly agonised about the fact that our country's representation quotas often remain unfilled.

It is against this background that it is absolutely possible that very few Namibians have actually followed or are following events in West Africa. Our local media's reporting on international activities is also characterised by mediocrity and snapshot reporting.

Beyond Namibia’s borders

These handicaps must, however, not discourage those of us who are capable of informing our children about what is happening beyond our borders. Failing to do that would result in our children actually becoming customers of our neighbouring drug lord.

The events in West Africa are captivating and noteworthy. For a long time, France managed to control post-colonial African states it once colonised.

Its ability to control these countries can be traced to its colonial approach called 'assimilation'.

As early as the 19th and 20th centuries, the French government adopted a policy of cultural assimilation that sought to convert and integrate the colonised subjects into the French colonial empire. The colonised were expected to become French – in simple terms, speak, dress, eat, think and act like a French man.

This is surely what happened. By the time the former French colonies became independent in the 1960s,their citizens souls and consciousness were French. If it were possible to change their skin to the colour of Emmanuel Macron, then it would be impossible to even make the allegation that they are Africans.

After obtaining independence, the former colonies were placed in an arrangement that kept them united in their service to France through an organisation called La Francophonie.

This further strengthened the ideology and approach of cultural assimilation. The impact of cultural assimilation is evident in the behaviour of Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon, who stays in France for up to three months each year, eating French food while in the office.

Change of leadership

The most significant French colonies are in West Africa. This includes Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, to name a few.

For more than 60 years, France controlled and managed affairs in these countries both directly and indirectly. A most noteworthy indictment of French imperialism came from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who made these penetrating remarks: "Fifty percent of everything that Burkina Faso exports ends up in the French treasury... the solution is not to take Africans and bring them to Europe, the solution is to free Africa from certain Europeans who exploit it." Sixty years after independence, France still prints the currency, the CFA Franc, for 14 African countries.

It would seem that citizens and patriotic forces in West Africa realised that French neocolonialism and imperialism cannot end through civilian leadership, which has often produced stooges.

In Burkina Faso, 35-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traoré has taken over as President. He has shown France the door. In Mali, 40-year-old Colonel Assimi Goïta similarly took over as president.

In Guinea, 43-year-old Colonel Mamady Doumbouya took over as president.

These military takeovers took place over the past two years. Recently, in Niger, military men under the leadership of General Abdourahmane Tchiani took control of the country. Concerned about losing power, France announced that it would intervene militarily in Niger.

This caused an unusual response, with the military regimes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea all announcing that a military intervention in Niger would also be seen as a declaration of war against them.

What these young military leaders are doing is unheard of and represents a challenge to French neocolonialism.

How it will evolve is for us all to wait and see. What we cannot afford is to remain unconcerned with our husbands, focusing on unproductive quarrels about the size of porridge left by their wives.

Muthoni waKongola is a columnist at Namibian Sun.