Relationship Between African Nations and France: What is Françafrique and why is it controversial?

To put simply, Françafrique is France’s sphere of influence over former French colonies in Africa, which includes countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Senegal. In total, it accounts for 14% of the population of Africa, 10% of the land and 12% of the continent’s GDP (Harvard International Review, 2022).

Françafrique originated in 1958, when former French President Charles de Gaulle saw how France was severely weakened by World War II and conflicts in Indochina and Algeria. He decided to grant independence to France’s remaining colonies in Africa in an effort to maintain close cultural and economic ties with them and to avoid more costly colonial wars. Thankfully, the decolonisation process in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa was mostly peaceful.

President de Gaulle held a referendum in September 1958, offering the African states a choice to stay in the French Community and continue receiving aid whilst engaging on a path to independence or choosing to leave and be granted independence immediately but losing financial and material aid from France. All voted yes but Guinea, eventually becoming Françafrique.

However, in recent years, many countries have been calling it ‘neo-colonialism’ with even more blaming France for promoting corruption and hindering economic development in the area.

The most glaring example of this is in Niger, the 7th largest producer of uranium worldwide but all of which go to Europe and it currently the 6th poorest nation in the world (Global Finance, 2024). Over 40% of its 20 million people live in extreme poverty and almost 15% of its GDP consists of foreign aid.

Former Representative to the African Union Mission, Dr. Arikana Chihombori Quao has said ‘By France forcing Niger to send all its natural resources to France, that’s a coup. By France having its own military in Niger and forcing Nigeriens that they can only be trained by France, that is a coup. By forcing Niger to deposit 50% of its reserve with France, that is a coup.’ (Africa Social Network, 2023).

Motasem Dalloul, a writer in the Middle East Monitor Newspaper also said ‘France does not address any of the people’s problems including violence, poverty, lack of economic opportunities, poor education systems and poor infrastructure. The West African countries – which were former French colonies – are the poorest countries in the world despite the fact that they are the richest in terms of natural resources. The ‘democracy’ that Paris seeks to maintain here is the protection of pro-France leaders’.

‘France must leave’ ‘Long live Niger’, one of the many anti-France demonstrations in Niger since August 2023 (BBC Afrique, 2023).

References

Fran. (2020, March 10). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran

‌Gibbs, T. (2024). A French Neo-colonialism? The Controversial Concept of Françafrique. The English Historical Review. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cead179

‌King, I. (2022, March 18). True Sovereignty? The CFA Franc and French Influence in West and Central Africa. Harvard International Review. https://hir.harvard.edu/true-sovereignty-the-cfa-franc-and-french-influence-in-west-and-central-africa/

‌Françafrique: unethical colonial action that has underdeveloped Africa – Africa Social Work & Development Network | Mtandao waKazi zaJamii naMaendeleo waAfrika. (2023, September 9). Africa Social Work & Development Network | Mtandao WaKazi ZaJamii NaMaendeleo WaAfrika – We Create, Aggregate and Disseminate Information and Resources to Facilitate Social Work and Development Work in Africa. https://africasocialwork.net/francafrique-unethical-colonial-action-that-has-underdeveloped-africa/

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