The French policy in sub-Saharan Africa since 1960 - publié le 12/04/2007

Résumé du document

The French military presence in Africa has been a major determinant of African political issues since 1960. The French army has stayed in Africa to accomplish several missions. Those missions were all aimed at maintaining stability. Some were intended to defend countries against foreign and internal threats; some were rather shaped to protect French expatriates and economic assets. The main problem entailed by this presence is the lack of sovereignty among African countries. The French-African bond is biased by the role played by the French army. Over the last forty years, France carried out many coups and supported disputed leaders. In the first part of the document, we will focus on military cooperation and in the second part, we will consider economic cooperation policies. Finally in the last part, we will try to understand the existence of cultural cooperation.

Extraits

[...] Since 1975 and the military assistance treaty signed by Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Juvenal Habyarimana, French and Rwandese leaders remained in very good terms. Mitterrand's both son and head of the African cell, Jean- Christophe Mitterrand and Habyarimana's son used to be friends. The French army trained Rwandese troops. During and after the conflict, France was accused of delivering arms to the Hutus. In January 1994, the BBC reported that a French aircraft loaded with mortars was confiscated by the UNAMIR in Kigali's airport[9]. [...]

[...] The French Agency for Development (AFD) is the financial institution in charge with granting loans and finance specific development schemes. Nevertheless, these figures include dept cancellations that amount 2.6 billion euros in 2005 and schemes aimed at promoting the French culture that amount an average of 15% of the comprehensive aid. All in all, the cooperation funds aimed at development really amount about 3.5 billion euros. What is more, the French multilateral aid part increased by 13 points between 1994 and 2001[14]. This figure shows the French tendency not to favour direct development policies but rather international led policies. [...]

[...] 20th 1960 KEIGER, J.F.V., France and the world since 1870, Oxford University Press p211 Idem Condolences speech, Feb, 5th 2005 http://ambafrance-us.org/atoz/defense.asp United Nations' estimations BBC News, France accused on Rwanda killings, 2006: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6079428.stm VEDRINE, Hubert, http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9805/05/rwanda.france/ Ministère de la Défense Le Patriote, Abidjan, avril 2000 OCDE, www oedc.org/dac http://www.hcci.gouv.fr/lecture/analyse/an003.html http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php? [...]

[...] There are 112 French high schools in Africa. For instance there are 24 of those schools in Madagascar only. More than half of the students ( 32.000 ) are locals. The political and economical elite's children of Western and Central African countries study in these schools. Then, most of them go and study in French universities African students study in French universities. The cultural closeness entailed by studies achieved in French schools and universities makes African leaders prone to maintain a good relationship with France. [...]

[...] Indeed, the French military involvement in Africa has been closely related to the political arena. Partly through military agreements, France has been able to depose many leaders, to provide regimes with armaments or to support political opponents. Since, de Gaulle did not feel very concerned by African issues, he appointed Jacques Foccart as his spin-doctor for African policy. Foccart remained at his post until 1974, under Pompidou's term. He founded the “Civic Action Service” which was dedicated to hidden operations in Africa. [...]