1. Macron seeks allies and a foreign policy less tied to France’s colonial past at Africa summit
Carlos Mureithi in Nairobi. May 12, 2026.
The Guardian. UK.
“A French-African summit held every few years since 1973 is taking place in a non-francophone country for the first time as Emmanuel Macron tries to rebuild France’s role on the continent after setbacks in its former colonies.
More than 30 heads of state and government are meeting in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, for this year’s iteration of the summit. Named Africa Forward, it is being seen by analysts as an attempt by France to court new allies.
Speaking at the summit on Tuesday, the French president announced new investments and said sovereignty would be key in the new partnership that France is hoping to build with Africa.
Macron said Paris would be respectful of each African country’s independence, adding that “sovereignty and autonomy is shared, and your success is our success”.
France’s new strategy, according to Macron, would be based on a shared agenda and that the “days of offering assistance are behind us”. “I’d like to focus on co-investment,” he said.”
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2. Former French colonies are still paying a ‘colonial’ tax
By Sikhumbuzo Thomo. August 20, 2023
“Fourteen former French colonies in Africa pay a “colonial tax” amounting to about $500 billion. […] These countries have a combined population of 174 million and a nominal total GDP of $196 billion, with a purchasing power parity GDP of $411 billion.
France has halted its colonisation policy, but its economic colonisation of these African states persists. A portion of the colonies’ budget continues to flow to the French central bank under various names and categories. This process allows France to appropriate about 85% of the former colonies’ annual income.
As a result, African countries face financial difficulties, and have to borrow back their own money from the French central bank as debts. To reclaim their funds, African countries are limited to applying for no more than 20% of the transferred amount. If they seek a larger sum, it can be vetoed. France argues that it is the money it spent on buildings and infrastructure constructed more than a century ago.
Any refusal by an African ruler to pay the colonial tax often leads to a coup.”
READ MORE
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PUBLICATION INFORMATION:
*The Mail & Guardian began life in 1985 as the Weekly Mail, founded by Anton Harber, Irwin Manoim [both SA Jews and
veteran anti-apartheid activists] and a group of “
fiercely independent journalists” who launched the paper when South Africa’s press landscape was suffocated by censorship.
“The apartheid state had already banned publications, shuttered dissent, and jailed reporters. [..] The paper was regularly banned, sued, or threatened. Its offices were raided, its journalists harassed, but it remained unflinching. […] Readers did not buy it merely for news — they bought it as an act of solidarity with truth itself.
In those early years, the Weekly Mail earned an aura that would shape South Africa’s journalism for decades: the paper was unafraid. […]
With the end of apartheid and the dawn of democracy in the early 1990s, the paper shifted into new terrain. It could no longer exist merely as a voice of resistance. […] In 1995, the paper rebranded as the Mail & Guardian, after forming a partnership with the Guardian Media Group in the UK. […] not only watchdog of South African politics but a continental platform for investigative journalism.” – READ MORE
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3. 10 African countries still paying colonial tax
By Akanni Dorcas. December 5, 2024
“These payments, created during colonial times, continue through agreements made at independence. This system allows France to take about 85% of the annual income from its former colonies. As a result, these African countries struggle financially and have to borrow their own money back from France’s central bank as loans. They can only request up to 20% of the money they sent, and if they ask for more, it can be rejected. France says this system is to cover the cost of infrastructure and buildings it built over 100 years ago.
When an African leader refuses to pay the colonial tax, it often leads to a coup. Below are 10 countries still affected by this system.“
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PUBLICATION INFORMATION: Vanguard was founded by legendary Nigerian journalist and publisher
Sam Amuka Pemu________
4. The Franc Zone, a Tool of French Neocolonialism in Africa
June 1, 2020.
“François Mitterrand warned that France would be irrelevant to twenty-first-century history unless it maintained its control of Africa. Its instrument for doing so is the CFA Franc, a colonial currency entrenching French rule more than fifty years after independence.
The CFA franc’s origins date back to the aftermath of World War II. Postwar conditions demanded a devaluation of the franc used in metropolitan France, but the question remained as to whether one same devaluation should be made across the whole colonial empire, thus maintaining a single currency for a single empire, or various devaluations, given that the war had such unequal impacts across different French-ruled territories.
The French Finance Ministry secretly opted for this latter course of action, which ultimately led, on December 26, 1945, to the official creation of the Franc of the French Colonies in Africa (FCFA). The new currency came with an incredible fixed parity […] The CFA franc was thus born overvalued […]
Indeed, from its creation, the CFA franc was an integral part of an economic mechanism designed to ensure that France’s sub-Saharan colonies would help rebuild a metropolitan economy which lacked the necessary vigor to face up to international competition.
Simultaneously, the metropolitan French economy needed access to sources of raw materials that it could buy in its own currency, at below world-market prices.
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5. France is responsible for Africa’s under development
Cameroon Post. April 23, 2014
by Professor Nicolas Agbohou, Ivorian political scientist and economist
