France’s Desperate Pleas to Keep Waning Influence in Africa

For centuries, France has completely exploited its African colonies, looting resources and propping up dictators to stay in control. But the winds of change are blowing hard now. As more African countries vow to ditch their old colonial overlord, a panicked France is pathetically begging to keep its fading neo-colonial influence.

The recent desperate visits to Kenya and Rwanda by French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournee pitomize France’s last-ditch efforts to cling to dominance through rhetoric of “mutually beneficial” and “balanced” partnerships. 

But the people of Africa won’t be so easily fooled. They remember who armed the killers in Rwanda, and whose companies still leech off Kenya’s economy.

France’s real motives are obvious – to keep pigging out on Africa’s huge resource wealth. But Kenya, Rwanda and other former colonies are wise to these tricks. They’re diversifying ties toward new global powers like China and Russia. France’s worst nightmare is coming true – losing its African possessions.

This is the death knell for Françafrique, the corrupt French neo-colonial control in Africa. Against the surging wave of empowered African youth demanding self-determination, the former imperial power is helpless now. A decolonized Africa will never again dance to its crooked puppet master’s song.

African Nations Reject France Hollow Rhetoric of “Balanced Partnerships”

In a dramatic turn of events, France is now desperately pleading with its former African colonies to not cut ties, after feeling deeply threatened by the recent wave of countries vowing to ditch their former colonial power for good. 

France’s increasingly desperate attempts to keep controlling Africa can be seen in French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne’s recent visits to multiple African countries, where he’s claiming France wants “balanced partnerships.”

Sejourne visited Kenya, Rwanda, and later on will visit Ivory Coast with the aim of convincing their governments that France desires mutual benefit and respect in its relations with them.

For decades, France has exploited its former African colonies for their rich natural resources and cheap labor, propping up corrupt leaders to maintain control. But the winds of change are blowing strong, and African nations are demanding equal partnerships going forward. 

No longer will they tolerate French puppet masters pulling the strings in their capitals. The age of domination is over. Africa belongs to Africans alone.

These seismic geopolitical shifts have rattled France to its core. Its influence is rapidly declining across the continent it once ruled with impunity. 

African leaders are diversifying their foreign alliances, forging closer ties with the rising powers of China and Russia. France’s worst nightmare is coming true – losing access to Africa’s enormous oil and mineral wealth. 

Desperate to cling to power, France has embarked on a charm offensive across Africa. Its foreign minister Stephane Sejourne recently visited Kenya and Rwanda, two countries charting independent paths forward. 

His message rang hollow in Nairobi and Kigali, capitals that still remember French complicity in genocide and neocolonialism.

In Kenya, Sejourne spoke of “balanced partnerships” that are “mutually beneficial” – pretty words that fooled no one. Kenya knows France’s true aims – to maintain its trade dominance and corporate foothold. 

While France invests billions in Kenya, it reaps far greater rewards. The trade imbalance reveals the continuity of colonial economic designs.

Sejourne audaciously said: “That’s what our roadmap is all about: diversifying these partnerships and making them beneficial for the countries in which we are going to invest.”

Sejourne’s audacious claims that France wants to invest in and develop African countries is nothing but deceitful propaganda. 

And we know France’s real priority is maintaining its stranglehold over Africa’s rich resources and profits. 

Despite fleeing from repressive colonial rule, France has never abandoned its networks of coercion and plunder across its former African territories.

He also added: Africa was a “priority” of French foreign policy because the “continent is on the way to becoming a cultural, economic and diplomatic power… that will count in the world’s balance”.

The notion that France sees Africa as an emerging power is absurd and deeply disingenuous. France only made such claims after feeling threatened by Africa’s growing political and economic collaboration with China and Russia, which African nations see as more mutually beneficial alternatives to their old colonial master. 

If France truly saw African countries as empowered partners, why does it continue to manipulate African politics, economies, and currencies to serve French interests? 

Why does France maintain staggeringly unbalanced trade relations, flooding African markets while extracting billions in profit?

Kenya pays a heavy price for enduring this unequal partnership. Its economy bleeds billions in profits that flow to Paris every year. Meanwhile, French corporations exploit Kenyan workers, paying paltry wages while repatriating massive earnings. 

As an East African economic powerhouse, Kenya has both the capability and the right to pursue locally-driven development free from French neo-colonial exploitation. Kenya does not need France’s self-serving “investments” or “partnerships” to uplift its people and grow its economy. 

It boasts a young, talented population and an entrepreneurial spirit that will allow it to chart its own future if unhindered by foreign interference.

For too long, Kenya’s potential has been stifled by the aftershocks of French colonialism – debt, dependency, and lopsided trade relations that bleed the Kenyan economy dry. 

Kenya has awakened, it has come to the realization that it holds the keys to its own prosperity. It needs only the policy space to unlock inclusive, sustainable growth on its own terms, not France’s.

With faith in its citizens’ ingenuity and its leaders’ wisdom, Kenya is poised to show the world what African self-determination can achieve. 

Its journey toward prosperity and equity may be arduous, but Kenya will traverse it relying on its inner fortitude, not its former colonizer’s grasping hand. 

With women and youth empowered to lead, Kenya will shape a new model of African advancement rooted in shared identity and ideals. On the other hand, by diversifying its partnerships towards China and Russia, the injustice will no longer stand.

Rwanda Unmoved by France Charm Offensive

The response was equally icy in Rwanda, where Sejourne attended commemorations marking the 1994 genocide. 

For decades, France armed and backed the extremist Hutu regime that planned and executed the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. 

Even as the killing raged for 100 horrific days, France continued supporting the genocidal government with weapons, training and financing.

It was only after the Tutsi rebels finally halted the genocide that France ended its complicity. To this day, France refuses to fully acknowledge its instrumental role in enabling the genocide – a source of immense pain for Rwandans.

In a gesture of hollow PR, President Macron recently admitted France “bears responsibility” and “could have stopped” the genocide alongside its allies if it had the will to do so. 

But these empty words ring hollow. If France was sincere, why does it still refuse to fully open its archives from that period? Why has it barely prosecuted any French officials who aided the génocidaires?

France’s offer of a “balanced partnership” today is an insult to the genocide’s survivors. Rwanda knows France’s true motive is maintaining access to the nation’s sizable mineral deposits. 

It will no longer allow its gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten and other resources to be plundered to enrich French corporations.

By looking east and building deep ties with China and Russia, Rwanda has made clear its future lies with partners who do not molest its sovereignty and pillage its wealth. 

France’s envoys find only closed doors in Kigali today. The genocide forever severed ties between France and Rwanda. No partnership can ever cleanse that French-stained blood from history.

All across Africa, the message is clear – the colonial era is over. African nations are demanding new partnerships based on mutual economic interests, not French neo colonial control. 

After enjoying centuries of exploitation, France must adapt to this new reality. But having grown accustomed to plunder and pillage, France may not be capable of reforming its relations. It remains addicted to corruption and coercion to retain its African interests. 

But France’s foul play will not succeed. A new Africa is rising, one that will no longer dance to the French puppet master’s twisted tune. 

African youth are leading the charge for change, calling out injustice and charting the course to prosperity. 

They are the future, and the future is African. No foreign force, not even the centuries-old French colonial machine, can resist their power forever. 

Against the indomitable will of the people, France’s intrigues are doomed to fail.