Macron’s African Policy: Verdcit and Perspectives

To address the issue of sovereignty on the African continent, Mbembe returns to his ancient roots, which he dates to the 15th century. According to him, this can be seen as the way in which Africa entered modernity. The demand for this sovereignty, over the centuries, took many forms – anti-colonial struggles, the two world wars, etc. These periods of pressure for greater sovereignty were, on the African side, marked by trans-class and trans-generational coalitions, where the young almost systematically bore the heaviest burden. The Pan-Africanist movement was surely the major example of this kind of period. Supported by leaders and a particularly young intellectual class, the political project supported the idea of ​​an African continent capable of weighing as an autonomous and co-responsible actor in the world. An idea, therefore, of universalist and democratic African sovereignty, with the aim of extending the fields of rights and freedoms, not hesitating to openly fight against conflicts of race, class, gender, and identity.

This brings us to the current political landscape of West Africa, particularly in the former French colonies. A landscape marked by radical political changes and coups d’état, considered by many to be the legacy of this pan-African ideal that has declined in recent decades. Mbembe, on the other hand, considers his new neo-sovereignist actors [4], as being first and foremost defined by an anti-French sentiment. The crystallization of an imaginary and an affect in response to the shocks that have affected the countries of the African continent since the 1970s. Particularly the ‘Structural Adjustment Plans’, forcing recently independent countries to repay their debts and go to the IMF and the World Bank, which was detrimental to the ability of said countries to make their own choices. What we are witnessing today therefore has, according to Mbembe, nothing to do with the heart of Pan-Africanism. It is rather a populist instrumentalization of political-intellectual ideas. An instrumentalization that is largely done through social networks and other digital platforms. But in the end, this is not very important. What must take precedence is the imaginary and the affects that it produces, as well as its political consequences.

Mbembe therefore invites us to redirect towards the movements of funds and transformation of which the repeated coups in the region are, according to him, only simple symptoms. The continent is in flux, and we must accept this while trying to fit into its long times and its cycles. The said cycle – and the tension – which seems the most crucial today according to Mbembe is that of the accumulation of private goods and means of predation. We can see it more explicitly in the growing inequalities, largely stimulated by the inclusion of African markets in the global economy and, consequently, the intensification of extractive industries. If we do not return to this political economy, we are wasting our time.

Despite the critical look at the neo-sovereignists, Mbembe therefore affirms that it is undeniable that this movement is part of the conversation on the future of the former French colonies in Africa. Just like its opponents, who wish that the relationship with France does not change. It is through these oppositions, and the tensions that emerge from them, that his countries will trace their future trajectories. For Mbembe, it is therefore important, particularly for France, to engage in its internal conflicts, and to respect the victors. If we do not succeed, it is Ukraine or Gaza that awaits us.