When the acting Prime Minister of Mali delivered his incendiary speech from the United Nations platform in which he described France as a "junta", while attacking the Ivorian and Nigerien presidents, as well as ECOWAS, he found hundreds of Malians living in New York to cheer him on and escort him to his hotel like a hero. It was the same on his return to Bamako where a huge crowd came out to welcome him like the warrior who returned victorious from a great battle.
When he tried to oust his predecessor from power in Ouagadougou, the current strongman of Burkina Faso had the good idea to say that his opponent had taken refuge on the French military base. A crowd of young people, displaying Russian flags from who knows where, invaded the streets and attacked French interests. There were subsequently several demonstrations demanding the departure of France and especially of its soldiers. The leader of the Burkinabè military junta has just acceded to this demand by asking the French to withdraw their armed forces from the country.
"Vox populi vox dei", says a Latin adage. The voice of the people is the voice of God. But here is the real story of this adage. The Emperor of the Franks, Charlemagne had an Anglo-Saxon scholar named Alcuin as an advisor. Around 798, while answering a series of questions sent to him by the sovereign, Alcuin wrote: “the people must be led according to the divine laws and not be obeyed… We must not listen to those who keep saying: "the voice of the people is the voice of God" because the vociferation of a crowd is close to madness. The leader is not the one who follows the people, but on the contrary precedes them to show them the way, to guide them.
After the Central African Republic and Mali, Burkina Faso has just asked the French soldiers to return home. Just as the Russian mercenary group Wagner is circulating a propaganda video on social media making it clear that their next target is the Ivory Coast. Are we really gaining by separating ourselves from France to throw ourselves into the arms of the Russians? For me, the real liberation of our continent will come the day when we are no longer in this dilemma. We must work to be autonomous, capable of ensuring our daily lives and our own safety.
Personally, I have no complex about being a Francophile, and the alliance between my country and France does not bother me at all, despite colonization and its crimes. I know that since the international society exists, a weak country always relies on a stronger one. Often the one who defeated him. Germany and Japan were indeed defeated and even crushed by the Americans during the Second World War. However, this does not prevent the United States from being the best allies of these two countries and from having military bases there. Who will question the sovereignty of Germany and Japan for that? When the world was divided between West and East, at the time of our accession to independence, our country chose the camp of the West, with France as its main ally. We have witnessed the fall of the eastern camp and I am glad that we have remained in the western camp.
France must however understand that our relations must evolve, otherwise it will face this anti-French feeling which is spreading throughout the French-speaking African space. Of course, Russian propaganda, which also covets our countries, contributes greatly to this. But until France understands that we are no longer children, its children, it will only pave the way for the Russians. Why is there no anti-British sentiment in the former English colonies? Perhaps because Great Britain has been able to withdraw from these countries and no longer feels obliged to try to solve their problems for them, to knight or excommunicate such and such a leader according to whether he likes it or not. France must also overcome certain ambiguities in the fight against terrorism. I will not insult France, nor my intelligence, by insinuating that this country would support the terrorists who rage in the Sahel, as the Malians have done. But if I were an ordinary citizen of one of these countries, I would wonder about the relevance of the French military presence when we see how terrorism has spread in all these countries since the French arrived there with their soldiers and all their technological means.
If France does not change software, many African chiefs will have no choice but to follow the vox populi.
By Venance Konan
*This article has been translated from French into English by Marcus Boni Teiga
