Anti-French discourse in French-speaking Africa has spread beyond educated urban elites and the phenomenon could “take lasting root”, says Alain Antil, researcher at the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri) in an interview with l AFP.
Criticism of France’s policy has been accompanied in recent years by violent demonstrations against French companies such as Total or against diplomatic representations in Chad, Mali and more recently in Burkina Faso.
The depth of the phenomenon has “nothing comparable to what we could see in previous decades”, underlines Alain Antil, who directs the Sub-Saharan Africa Center of Ifri and who publishes Wednesday, with his colleague Thierry Vircoulon, a study devoted to “Themes, actors and functions of anti-French discourse in French-speaking Africa”.
We are now a long way from the time “when very articulate criticism (…) was confined to leading circles of intellectuals and which, sometimes, during serious political crises, could spill out into the streets”, he says.
It is striking to note that the detractors no longer even seek to demonstrate the untruths: “we no longer even need to prove that France supports jihadism. We affirm it,” he observes.
For the researcher, the intensification of anti-French sentiment can be explained by “disappointing economic and political trajectories” in countries where the population had once founded the hope of economic progress and in terms of democracy.
Faced with the failure of their own policies, the leaders of these countries resort to “scapegoat techniques”: “France is ultimately responsible for the non-development of these countries and the corruption of their elites”, explains Alain Antil . “It is always an argument which comes to explain, and finally clear the responsibility of these elites”.
At the same time, these anti-French discourses were able to prosper because the French leaders themselves were slow to react.
Until very recently, the French authorities “were in a kind of denial”, simply seeing it as a correlation to crises, “to outbreaks of hives” or manipulation of the Russians, explains the researcher.
The study certainly shows “an articulation between this Russian propagandist war and certain segments of African social networks”.
It is undeniable that social networks have massively circulated false information such as videos or photos showing French soldiers who are “supposedly” stealing gold or “teaming up with jihadists”. , emphasizes Alain Antil.
But the expert warns against the temptation to explain everything by Russian propaganda.
“Obviously the Russians play their part, have an impact, and fund anti-French campaigns,” he says.
However, to think that it is enough “to explain to the Africans that they are manipulated by the Russians for it to end” would be an error of analysis, he warns.
Far from receding, these speeches will take root “lastingly in the political fields and the public opinions of these countries”, he adds, citing three factors nourishing anti-French sentiment: the military presence, the policy of development aid and currency.
If the number of French soldiers has drastically dropped from 30,000 men in the early 1960s to some 6,100 today, “interventionism has not diminished”, notes the researcher.
Regarding the CFA Franc, regardless of the reforms and the distancing of France, the only name Franc CFA remains “a symbol” while the former colony has adopted the euro.
Although present, the anti-colonial discourse is “not central” in the spread of anti-French sentiment, on the other hand, observed the researchers who reviewed social networks and newspapers.
“It is rather the post-colonial period” which is in question.
The researchers do not make recommendations but questioned by AFP, Alain Antil notes the need to spare the opinions of these countries.
“There are, on the French side, often awkwardness in the way we address the interlocutors”, he explains. “Form matters a lot” and “we don’t measure it enough,” he said, recalling the criticisms faced by President Emmanuel Macron during his recent official trip to Africa.
“African public opinion is extraordinarily sensitive — we can understand them — to treating them as equals and not having someone who gives lessons or who is ironic,” he concludes.
06/14/2023 16:59:31 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP