France began its colonization of West Africa about 175 years ago, when Louis Faidherbe was appointed the colonial governor of Senegal. In the 1960s, France was forced, reluctantly, to grant formal independence to its colonies. These countries were seething with resentment and anger after decades of colonial exploitation, enforced by murder and massacres when the French government’s control was slipping.
A good example of how France treated its colonial subjects is the mass execution of hundreds of African soldiers, who had been prisoners of war in Nazi Germany, at Camp Thiaroye in Senegal in 1944, because they were militantly demanding their pay. The attitude of the French politician who spoke at the official commemoration of the Dec. 2 massacre, when he did not recognize the contribution African soldiers made to the freeing of France from the Nazis, refreshed the anger over this war crime.
Protest in Bamako, the capital of Mali,over the presence of France in Africa in 2024.
French neocolonialism collapsing
According to France 24, a website owned by the French government, “Over the past decade, France has been forced out of more than 70 percent of the African nations where it previously maintained a military presence. Today, its forces are largely confined to Djibouti, with 1,500 soldiers, and Gabon, with a little over 350 troops.” (Jan. 2)
Djibouti is a small country on the Red Sea in East Africa; Gabon is a sparsely populated nation in Central Africa, with an Atlantic coastline at the Equator.
What this means is that France has lost its ability to enforce the neocolonial relationships it had with its former direct colonies. It still has significant economic ties, but they are slipping as new economics tends to follow new political relationships.
Three former French colonies — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). It originated as a mutual defense pact created on Sept, 16, 2023, following the 2023 Nigerien crisis, in which the West African regional free trade bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), threatened to intervene militarily to restore former leaders after a coup in Niger earlier that year.
Protesters in Niamey, the capital of Niger, hold a T-shirt reading ‘France Must Go’ as they demand the departure of the French army from Niger in September 2023.
The countries comprising the AES have about 72 million people, while ECOWAS has around 400 million.
The Alliance is growing stronger and is hoping to add additional members. Significantly, the AES has recently created its own insignia that features a baobab tree, a very important tree in the Sahel.
Symbol of AES.
In a joint statement released in late December, the leaders of the three Sahelian countries described the closure of French bases as “trickery” aimed at “carrying out destabilizing actions.”
“The French imperialist junta, feeling its interests threatened, supported by certain heads of state in the sub-region, is desperately trying to bring the emancipatory dynamic to a halt,” the leaders said. (france24.com, Jan. 2)