By Minga Mbweck Kongo*
On July 26 2023, thousands of Nigerien marched through the streets of Niamey, the capital, to celebrate its ‘independence’ from France. A day after the military coup, the second Russia-Africa Summit was held in St. Petersburg from July 27 to 28. Representatives from forty-nine African countries, including seventeen heads of state, were present. The Summit represented a critical reflection point in the growing multi-polarisation process as the Global South tried to de-link from Western US-centered hegemonic control. Speaking in French, the Burkinabé president Captain Ibrahim Traoré denounced Western neo-colonialism and criticised his fellow African leaders and neocolonialism, using direct outpouring words, “The problem is seeing African heads of state who bring nothing to its people who are struggling but who sing the same thing as the imperialists, calling us “militia,” and therefore referring to us as men who do not respect human rights”. Traoré closed his speech with the moving slogans “la patrie ou la mort, nous vaincrons,”
Genesis
The West African region has a long history of military coup d’état. The Niger coup d’état should be contextualised within that long tradition. The two years of Covid-19 were marked by the national and global shock of the deaths, the national psychic grief of Thomas Sankara’s eventual, painful assassination and the absence of Lumumba, who consistently reminded Africans to see the wealth of their resources. Captain Traore spoke in the troublesome Africa Russia summit decades after ‘African independence’, which brought all the festering deep intergenerational wounds to the surface (which long-standing African leaders, France and its allies could not deal with the raw truth). Even Giorgia Meloni, current Italian prime minister, in her frustrations, expressed dismay in France when she publically warned that the accumulation of wealth at the expense of a growing poor African was, in fact under a threat if there was not more acknowledgement of colonial benefits and generous giving to create a more balanced society.
France Afrique
Within this context of deep material contestation in Africa, the West African population is becoming more disillusioned with the lack of monetary sovereignty and poverty. A tangible example of wealth inequality is that France’s historical usage of its single currency Franc CFA, perhaps provides the most cogently microscopic view of this ongoing economic dilema in Francophone Africa. The begging questions are: what were the ultimate sacrifices made by African freedom fighters such as Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Amílcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, and Nelson Mandela, for assassination or lengthy incarceration?
The overwhelming current African generation sense that France and the West do not care about the people of Africa – much reflected in the speech of Giorgia Meloni on the African economy and migration. Meloni argued that the economic impact of France’s CFA still deeply entrenched in the French favour. In response to ECOWAS military action in Niger, Meloni questions France meddling in African affairs and raised concern about the associated hidden truths around the human rights atrocities committed by France and how they relate to the ongoing plundering of African mineral resources style.
The intensification of coup d’état in West Africa occurred at an unprecedented time of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine that coincided with these contingent events and revelations about African challenges. The circumstances around France Afrique contestation, unsettled ghosts of past injustices in France Afrique and their continuities, along with the issue of the contentious historical injustice of Africa provide.
Consequence
Dekinking is a word coined by Smir Amin to readdress the imbalance of colonial legacy and bridge the inequality gap between global North and global South. However, it all degenerated into blame games and sanctions. As a result, we have a state that responds to any threats with a heavy hand ready to crush any dissent. What accounts for the differentiation in attitude to reversing the political trajectory in these countries? Perhaps the more critical challenge is that unless the current African generation is positioned in a manner that makes it responsive to these social challenges.
Amin (1974) describes the unequal asymmetric relations which have relegated African countries (post-independence) to be primarily exporters, with a substantial part of the income derived from exports. Among the challenges associated with monopoly capital through land grabs, Africa remains mainly export-oriented in raw materials and dependent, unlike China, which exports manufactured goods.
The international isolation enables Russia to expand cooperation globally.Thus, practically everywhere in Francophone Africa, there is contempt toward France, denouncement of France’s hegemony on the African continent, and an announcement of a shift toward a new partner. There is an instant overwhelming support for the military coup and demonstrations against France. Ubiquitous placards highlighted ‘Macron dégage, France est notre malheure’, inequality, and related matters of people’s rights and supporting dictatorship in Africa. In Africa, Russia and China remains an economic favourite and their uncontested area is armaments and infrastructure. Energy is also a key sector for Russia, which is finding ways out for its gas exports. Russia provides security, via Wagner, in exchange for strategic resources. However, some argue that this partnership is not a win-win.
References -Amin, S., 1979. NIEO: how to put Third World surpluses to effective use. Third World Quarterly, 1(1), pp.65-72.
* Minga Kongo is an anthropologist, development scholar with research interests in water sociality, mobility, urbanism, politics, illness and climate change. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town.He can be reached via email kongmbweck@gmail.com
