Something interesting happened this past week, while attending a NATO summit of World leaders in England, French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the media where he purported to summon to Paris, the Presidents of some African countries for talks following the deaths of 13 French soldiers in a helicopter collision the previous week.
“The leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad — should come to France on Dec. 16 to “provide clarifications,” he added.
More ominous was the threat that “I can’t, nor do I want French soldiers on the ground while there is anti-French sentiment that is sometimes held by the leaders” of some of the African countries in the clearest indication yet that he is considering withdrawing French troops from those countries if he doesn’t hear exactly what he wants to, from them.
Strangely though, the 13 soldiers died from a collision of two French helicopters in Mali during a night-time operation against Islamic militants in what is considered one of the biggest losses of French troops in the last three decades.
French President Emmanuel Macron
What explanation does Macron really want to hear from the African leaders?
Obviously what irks Macron is the decision by 8 African countries to withdraw their currency reserves from the French Central Banks and abandon the unitary euro-linked CFA Franc, replaced obviously with a new regional currency christened “the Eco”.
The eight West African countries which include, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Niger and Guinea Bissau which gained independence decades ago, still continue to vest their foreign exchange reserves (50% of the National reserves from each country) with the French central bank and they have now decided to move their reserves to Senegal.
Benin’s President Patrice Talon is quoted by French media as having said that “Paris has also agreed to release our reserves, which will now be vested with the Senegal-based Central Bank of West African States”.
Benin President Patrice Talon
Obviously a withdrawal from this colonial relic of continued French colonialism in Africa will have serious economic effects on France, who may refuse to release the reserves and in return use the “Force theory” to maintain the status quo.
They would likely use the thousands of French troops currently embedded in West Africa as an occupying force, just as the US has done in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Didn’t US President DJ Trump chide Macron about how poorly the French economy was actually doing, right there in England? Trump also (in extremely bad taste) said he could return some ISIS fighters back to France from Syria since they apparently originated therefrom…!!
The main question here is, do French children study about this banal agreement and subjugation of African countries in school as part of their curriculum? What do they think of it? Normal or outrightly disgusting?
Does French media report and critique the arrangement, that their prosperity is hinged on the modern day slavery of an entire segment of the African continent?
Does the French or European media see the current French occupation of West Africa under the guise of fighting Islamic militants simply for what it is, the protection of the goose that lays the golden egg?
Which French media organization has ever called out the lop-sided award of tenders and jobs in these countries to Europeans (especially French) in these countries and their activities?
That’s right, European journalists have been happy to watch the neo-colonialism of Africa without a pip, without saying a word because in many cases, they are the beneficiaries of it by design or by default.
France would hardly criticize American occupation in the middle-east because that would give the US the carte blanche to criticize the monetary union arrangement with West African countries.
And so too it is with African football, European journalists (mainly French) have found a home here on the African continent, reporting on the exploits of Africans for their European media outlets.
Many curved this niche out for themselves for the simple reason that the European reportage of European football was too saturated and they needed to differentiate themselves accordingly, and thus give themselves a comparative advantage and longevity in their jobs.
What you notice though, is the studious silence in the face of blatant corruption and decimation of the game in Africa executed by rogue elected officials, by these European journalists. Knowing full well just how rotten the core of the management of the game in CAF and the African FAs really is, these journalists are actually extremely arrogant and belligerent in their assertion that they would “never write about corruption, politics or governance…just the beauty of the African game…”
However, in an unspoken and sinister quid pro quo (for their silence) with the corrupt Governors of the game, it is these same European journalists of African football who have “pole position” for any and all lucrative technical opportunities that come out of Africa.
Peter Drury, comes to Africa for commentary gigs
For instance, during the AFCON, it is quite normal to hear complaints from established African journalists and sports commentators that they have been passed up in the “distribution” of technical jobs like match commentary and analysis, while the media companies happily rope in the European journalists for these events.
In CAF, jobs that should be in the capable hands of Africans are kept exclusively for Europeans, to ridiculous levels. For example, an Irish (and probably very nice) lady, Naoise King, now runs the visibility and media for both CAF President and FIFA SG Fatma Samoura.
Irish Naoise King, now handling comms for the FIFA-CAF takeover
The most recent slap in the face by these European Journalists was the recent vote for the FIFA Ballon d’Or just this last week, which was nauseatingly won (once more and for the 6th time) by Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Argentina.
The voting patterns by European Journalists, especially those who report almost exclusively on Africans overseas or on the continent, obviously left a lot to be desired.
Obviously the African journalists from the continent didn’t fare any better, with only 11 out of the 49 sampled ( a measly 22.5 %) voted for African powerhouse Sadio Mane of Liverpool.
This is compared to 18/49 votes to Lionel Messi (37%), 2/49 to Mohammed Salah (4%) and 14/49 for Virgil Van Dyk (29%).
Clearly Liverpool football club had a good outing in Africa with their 2 key players but the balance of probabilities clearly went on to favor Leo Messi.
Sadio Mane: Knifedin the back?
This where Africa is left holding 2kgs of shit in a 1kg paper bag from these Europeans, they will never call out the massive looting, nepotism and cronyism in the running of the game in Africa, will never vote for African players meaningfully but are always available to slip into those juicy, paying opportunities in African football while in the meantime, out of earshot of everyone else, they will mutter to each other about the tragedy of Africa and its lost potential.
Do you get the feeling of déjà vu? Well surprise, so do we…
It reminds us of the bullshit comments of European and American leaders that Africa and Africans are irredeemably corrupt while their bank vaults are bursting at the seams with looted money from Africa!
