Thanks for writing. I wasn't aware of how French African nations vote (or used to vote) alongside with France in lockstep. I've also been writing about Former French countries here. Take a look!
France is really in a difficult position. The truth is that they don’t have a coherent internal narrative about their purpose in Africa, which is fatal to imperial projects.
Further, it is pretty obvious that France is the cause of the problems it is allegedly trying to solve. I also wrote about this in February:
>Francophone African elites still consume a fair amount of French cultural products.
I believe this is widely underestimated.
Even the "rebel" leaders (and the part of the public opinion that support them) have a very France-centric worldview and are in many ways francophiles. So it could be very easy for any leader to obtain some symbolic/performative concessions here and there to convince their public opinion that they're not being stepped on.
Furthermore, this cultura lock-in has a much stronger effect than the CFA or any military treaty.
Could you share gross trade amounts instead of percentage share? I suspect, that trade volumes have increased, even inflation adjusted, while trade with China has increased so much proportionally to push their percentage down. China has increased trade massively with the world over, so that you could write this same article about any other country on a narrative of decreased percentage of trade. The story is not, these countries pulling away from their former trading partners, it’s that they move to China. If you wanted to make the argument that you have, you’d need to compare African trade with another established colonial power who has neutrally perused trade is the region, such as the UK. From your graph, they’ve declined at the same rate
What do you think of the possibility of Quebec/Canada filling in some of the (soft) power vacuum from France? Canada offers many of the same benefits - a liberal immigration program and an excellent education system - without France's historical baggage in the region.
Quebec's relative power within Canada has been falling, in economic and population terms. Increased immigration and integration with Francafrique could be a way of strengthening the position of French-Canadians within their own county.
Thanks for writing. I wasn't aware of how French African nations vote (or used to vote) alongside with France in lockstep. I've also been writing about Former French countries here. Take a look!
I wrote about Ivory Coast: https://yawboadu.substack.com/p/history-of-cote-divoireivory-coast
Gabon: https://open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu/p/the-economy-and-history-of-gabon?r=garki&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Guinea: https://open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu/p/the-economics-and-geopolitics-of?r=garki&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Central African Republic: https://open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu/p/the-economic-history-of-central-african?r=garki&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Morocco: https://open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu/p/moroccos-development-process?r=garki&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
France is really in a difficult position. The truth is that they don’t have a coherent internal narrative about their purpose in Africa, which is fatal to imperial projects.
Further, it is pretty obvious that France is the cause of the problems it is allegedly trying to solve. I also wrote about this in February:
https://thewaywardrabbler.substack.com/p/in-search-of-lost-empire
>Francophone African elites still consume a fair amount of French cultural products.
I believe this is widely underestimated.
Even the "rebel" leaders (and the part of the public opinion that support them) have a very France-centric worldview and are in many ways francophiles. So it could be very easy for any leader to obtain some symbolic/performative concessions here and there to convince their public opinion that they're not being stepped on.
Furthermore, this cultura lock-in has a much stronger effect than the CFA or any military treaty.
Could you share gross trade amounts instead of percentage share? I suspect, that trade volumes have increased, even inflation adjusted, while trade with China has increased so much proportionally to push their percentage down. China has increased trade massively with the world over, so that you could write this same article about any other country on a narrative of decreased percentage of trade. The story is not, these countries pulling away from their former trading partners, it’s that they move to China. If you wanted to make the argument that you have, you’d need to compare African trade with another established colonial power who has neutrally perused trade is the region, such as the UK. From your graph, they’ve declined at the same rate
What do you think of the possibility of Quebec/Canada filling in some of the (soft) power vacuum from France? Canada offers many of the same benefits - a liberal immigration program and an excellent education system - without France's historical baggage in the region.
Quebec's relative power within Canada has been falling, in economic and population terms. Increased immigration and integration with Francafrique could be a way of strengthening the position of French-Canadians within their own county.
A wonderful writing and a deep analysis!
Congratulations Ken !
Worth sharing.Inspiring enough
A great read! Thanks for these insights Ken.