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Djeukam Tchameni
By Djeukam Tchameni
French President Jacques Chiracs remarks on South African President Thabo Mbekis peace efforts
in Ivory Coast have unleashed a political and diplomatic tsunami in Africa and in the Diaspora.
During a state visit to Senegal in February 2005, the French Head of State said:
West Africa is West Africa. It has its own characteristics. You have to know it well. And I would
really like President Mbeki whose process, I repeat, we do support to immerse himself in
West Africa so as to understand the mentality and the soul of West Africa, because in times of
crisis, you have to really know peoples mentalities and what is in peoples souls.
The first reaction from the South African government to this statement came from Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad who, in diplomatic terms, expressed disbelief in front of such a blunder, Since
[Chirac] spoke in French and it was interpreted in English, we hope he has been misquoted.
Professor Shadrack Gutto, head of the Center for African Renaissance Studies at the University of
South Africa, described the French Presidents comments as representative of a typical racist
mentality of a former colonizer. To imply that he understands the soul of West Africans better than
an African truly reflects the height of racist arrogance.
South Africas Presidential spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, expressed his disagreement with the notion
that Mr. Mbeki knew little about Ivory Coast, In four months, we have accomplished what others
have not done in years.
Reactions to Chiracs comments were not limited to South Africa. Africans worldwide felt insulted
and many reacted angrily. It is not Africans who have to understand other Africans. It is Jacques
Chirac that has to understand us, said a resident of Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
From Kigali, Rwanda, a political commentator wrote, The only things Chirac understands about
Africa are French neo-colonial interests.
In the same vein, a Nigerian journalist questioned, Mbeki has lived in Nigeria for two years
representing the African National Congress (ANC) leadership in exile. How in this world can Chirac
understand West Africans better than he?
A student from the University of Buea in Cameroon declared, Jacques Chirac, who has been
trained by Jacques Foccart in the evil arts of neo-colonialism, cannot cope with the
emerging new leadership of Africa. The days are gone when Paris could dictate the moods in its
former possessions in Africa. African leaders have now decided to take the fate of their continent
into their own hands.
Africans in the Diaspora did not take the insult laying down. An African in America stated, Africans
in America must find a way to recreate the forces that came together to defeat apartheid in South
Africa to defeat the French Nazi undertaking in West and Central Africa. It has gone on for too
long. It has been hidden for too long. France and Jacques Chirac personally must pay for their
crimes in Africa.
Even in France, Chirac came under criticism for his inappropriate comments: Jacques Chirac has
just lost another good opportunity to shut up. How can he possibly think that he understands the
mentality and soul of an African better than another African? Such irresponsible statements are a
threat to the security of French citizens living abroad.
Without a doubt, the derogatory remarks of the French leader have pulled the cover off the hidden
and criminally incestuous relationships that still link France to its former colonies in Africa. Chirac,
like De Gaulle or Mitterand before him, believes that the policy of assimilation instituted in
former French colonies has succeeded so much that today a French speaking African is closer to
no
matter how long you soak a piece of wood in the river, it
never becomes a crocodile.
a Frenchman than say an English or Portuguese speaking African. But wise Africans know that
French leaders also love to portray France as the benevolent voice of a speechless Africa in world
fora, bringing a touch of humanity in a neo-liberal global order dominated by ruthless Americans.
This hypocritical posture is nothing but a scam to divert the attention of public opinion from the
criminal records of France in Africa.
Historically, the country of Voltaire [a French philosopher and writer] was one of the leading
slave trading nations of the world. Through the theater of a bourgeois revolution in 1789,
France preached liberty, equality and fraternity at home, while practicing slavery, colonialism and
exploitation abroad.
In 1804, Africans in Haiti, under the leadership of Toussaint LOuverture, defeated the
French army led by General Rochambeau and created the
Republic. France ganged up with other white countries, blockaded the newly independent
nation and forced Haitian leaders to agree to compensate the French for the loss of plantations and
slaves. The amount arbitrarily set was so high that it took nearly 100 years for Haiti to repay
this debt and the economic future of the island was forever compromised.
France not only devastated the island economically, but the French relentlessly sought to wash
away the humiliation of the military defeat of 1804 by destroying Haiti as a symbol of Black
freedom. After 200 years of meddling in the countrys internal affairs and fueling political
instability and chaos, France finally conspired with the United States in 2004 to overthrow
the elected President of Haiti, Jean Bertrand-Aristide.
only relationship
France has ever had to Africa has been one of exploitation.
The
This relationship has not changed under French president Jacque Chirac.
Ouandie was arrested and assassinated by a firing squad in 1970.
Successful or not, the fierce anti-colonial resistance forced France to reluctantly concede some
form of independence to its colonies in the 1960s. De Gaulle quickly set out to build a neo-
France also maintained a tight grip on their economies. In fact, the 16 French speaking former
colonies of France are the only countries in the world that claim to be independent but do not
have a national currency.
They use the Franc CFA [Colonies franciases dAfrique or French Colonies of Africa] that is
rivalry between the warring factions and later entered into a full confrontation with the Ivorian
people that left many civilians dead.
The history of France clearly disqualifies Jacques Chirac as a well wisher in Ivory Coast. It does
explain however why France will do all within its power to sabotage the efforts of president Mbeki.
Jacques Chirac knows that the prosperity of his country depends not on the hard work of its
people (who work only 35 hours a week), but on the continued exploitation of former
colonies in Africa. Without them, France would weigh no more than Portugal on the international
scene.
Unfortunately for Chirac, Africa has come of age. Gone are the days when Africas fate was being
determined in Berlin, Paris or London. Africa has set its own institutions to address its own
problems. The African Union has appointed president Mbeki as the mediator in the crisis in Ivory
Coast.
The mediator has the confidence of the government and of the rebels. Many Africans are satisfied
with his progress.
To the contrary, French troops were neither invited nor appointed by Pan-African institutions. The
Ivorians do not welcome them. They must leave Ivory Coast immediately.