Retreats from crumbling empires are inevitably characterised by hastily arranged evacuations. Panicked civilians make their way to rickety airport terminals, in the hope of an emergency flight out of the chaos. This was the postcolonial scene in Niamey, the capital of Niger, this week, as hundreds of French nationals joined other EU citizens in scurrying away from the west African nation.
Sections of the military had staged a coup against Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s democratically elected president, just before 3 August, the country’s National Day, when it marked 63 years since gaining nominal independence from France in 1960.
Crowds were chanting “Down with France” as they targeted the country’s embassy last weekend, smashing windows and setting fire to perimeter walls. As Bazoum remained under house arrest, his close allies in Paris feared that the safety of westerners could no longer be guaranteed. A bullish statement from the Élysée Palace vowed that Emmanuel Macron “will not tolerate any attack against France and its interests”. If anybody was hurt, retaliation would come “immediately and uncompromisingly”, said Macron, sounding every inch the imperial master issuing a stark warning to unruly natives causing trouble more than 2,000 miles away.
Despite the illusion of complete withdrawal, France still has a garrison of 1,500 troops in Niger, together with an air force base servicing fighter jets and attack drones. All of this is a forceful reminder that, in spite of a long and bloody period of decolonisation, France has retained a quasi-empire in Africa by stealth, and it is under threat like never before.
The current Niger crisis can thus be linked to former colonial relationships being restructured as Françafrique – a formidable neocolonial nexus across sub-Saharan Africa encompassing economic, political, security and cultural ties and alliances centred on the French language and values.
Charles de Gaulle, France’s most influential postwar president, summed up its importance by saying: “French world power and French power in Africa were inextricably linked and mutually confirming.” While recognising self-determination movements, De Gaulle and subsequent French leaders wanted to hold on to their strategic military bases, as well as energy resources and favourable trade deals, along with financial control.
Those leaders all viewed Africa as France’s pré carré, or backyard – a metaphor dating back to the pre-revolutionary monarchs to refer to conquered territory that needed defending. Niger, for example, is the world’s seventh-largest uranium producer, and France, which relies on nuclear energy for around 70% of its power, is a key importer.
Military and governmental advisers from Paris have permeated successive Nigerien administrations too, not least the one that has just been deposed. Crucially, French remains the official language for 25 million Nigeriens, and cultural organisations within the Francophonie group of nations – those united by the language of Molière – abound.
Beyond this, outright corruption has also played a part in maintaining the postcolonial order. Françafrique has comprised countries notorious for human rights violations, including Niger. Subservient puppet leaders ignored democratic progress in return for massive aid programmes. Bribes have been paid via arms deals and other help with security, and – of course – in hard cash that has been laundered.
The money flow was always two-way, as Africans also provided suitcases full of cash to senior French politicians. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, already a convicted criminal, has been charged with accepting millions from the late Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, for example. He denies the accusation.
The most enduring legacy of Gallic colonialism is the CFA (African Financial Community) franc – a currency once pegged to the French franc, and now to the euro. It gives France monetary hegemony over several African states, including Niger.
The US has always supported such exploitative arrangements, originally because former French colonies were seen as bastions against the geopolitical and ideological influence of the Soviet Union during the cold war. The notion of France being the “Gendarme of Africa” now extends to it playing a vital role in the fight against terrorist insurgents such as al-Qaida in the vast Sahel region, which straddles around a dozen countries from Eritrea to Senegal, via Niger.
France’s big problem, however, is that Nigeriens – like so many Africans – are rejecting Françafrique with as much fervour as their forebears came to reject the official French Empire. In this sense, France’s traditional dominance is disintegrating.
Despite receiving up to $2bn a year in development assistance, Niger remains one of the poorest countries on earth, with a literacy rate of just 37%. The EU was due to allocate €503m to Niger in the three years up to 2024, but the ongoing influence of France and its allies is still blamed for endemic problems, including mass youth unemployment.
Niger is only the latest country in the region to undergo a coup, after Mali in 2020 and 2021 and Burkina Faso (twice) in 2022 – both former colonies that also gained independence from France in 1960. All express increasing resentment towards the French, and indeed the west, while rival powers including Russia, Turkey and China threaten to exploit the situation.
Juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali have already warned that any attempt to restore Bazoum in Niger via military intervention will be viewed as a declaration of war. Troops working for Wagner, the Russian mercenary group, are meanwhile operating within Niger’s neighbours, and have offered their support to the rebellious Nigeriens.
Russian flags were brandished by those demonstrating outside the French embassy in Niamey, with many calling for Vladimir Putin to replace Macron as their biggest global backer. This raises the prospect of a new “scramble for Africa” – the classic description of the way European powers annexed chunks of the continent up until the first world war. If – as seems likely – hatred of France intensifies, then there is every possibility of full-blown evacuations, to include French soldiers, as the key Françafrique nations of sub-Saharan Africa finally complete the decolonisation process.
The most welcome outcome of all this would be for Niger and other African states on a similar path to choose self-government and a democratic future – but it is more probable that countries with even worse records for corruption, human rights abuses and all-round mismanagement will step in to fill the power vacuum.
Nabila Ramdani is a French journalist of Algerian descent and author of Fixing France, to be published in autumn 2023
