From an article published in Le Monde by Jean-Philippe Rémy
4th of December 2013
“It has been almost 40 years that annual meetings have been established between French and African leaders. In spite of our obsession to celebrate everything, no one thought about celebrating this birthday. A postcolonial embarrassment sticks to the idea of these previous “France-Afrique” summits, re-baptise so many times to try to erase the memories of “incestuous drifts” between the former colonial power and the African continent.
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Since then, everything has changed. Starting with Africa, the French-speaking part of Africa is out from the tête-à-tête with France. The whole planet rushes to Africa. To enter into this game, nothing better than a summit.
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Around June 2014, Barack Obama will receive the leaders from the continent – the first time in the US.
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China has become the first economic partner of the African continent since 2009, but India and Turkey already have their summits. Most of them highlight the good things that they want for Africa and its “development”. Recognising that the point is also to develop …. their own interests. There is no good summit without any financial announcements: during the last summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, in 2012, Beijing announced that its credit to Africa will be doubled ($20 billion), added to the direct investments.
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As the European Union or South America, the Arab countries also have their summits and just met in Kuwait.
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In sum, everyone is coming to Africa to look for something: to secure its raw material or ballot in the international institutions. This is the only thing that is not new.”
For the original source in French, click here.
Note from the author: This article is framed by the summit between France and African countries which started on the 6th of December [More on this summit].
