July 20th, 2022 at 10:02 am
Africa according to French president James Macron
At a press conference at the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 8, French President Emmanuel Macron answered a question from a Cote d’Ivoire journalist.
The reporter asked why there was no Marshall Plan for Africa.
Macron’s response included these comments: “The challenge of Africa is completely different; it is much deeper. It is civilizational today. Failing states, complex democratic transitions, the demographic transition.” He later said, “One of the essential challenges of Africa … is that in some countries today seven or eight children [are] born to each woman.”
In this article, we shall analyze the comments according to the French president.
Many commentators have called these statements racist, problematic and arrogant. And many of us Africans agree.
The French colonial empire ruled over much of North, West, and Central Africa from around 1830 until 1960. During this time, African peoples were labeled “French subjects” but as a rule could not own property or vote.
By the time the last French colonial country Gabon, fully gained its “independence” in 1960, France had left behind a legacy of colonization, slavery, and pillage.
President Macron, as the leader of France, speaks on the status of Africa with this backdrop looming behind him. It is concerning to see the casual manner in which a head of state can play into racist stereotypes of the African continent and African women.
Africa is a continent of 54 dynamically different countries. Each of them like any other country on earth has strikingly different needs and issues to face and a conglomerate of local individuals and organizations working hard to address them.
Analyzing President Macron’s Comment About Africa
When Macron in his comments refers to “failed states, complex democratic transitions, demographic transition, infrastructure, porous borders, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, violent fundamentalism, Islamist terrorism,” he plays into the tiresome trope that “Africa is a country, everyone is poor and can’t help themselves.”
Niger is the country with the world’s highest fertility rate, 7.6 children per mother, according to World Bank data. But the number of children per African woman in many African countries is lower and is generally declining. The data in 2015 shows 3.5 in Namibia, 5.6 in Nigeria, as well as 4.3 in Kenya (down from 7.9 in 1960).
It is really distressing to look at the ease at which this president throws out an extreme number to paint an inaccurate and stereotypical picture of African mothers.
Despite my criticisms of Macron’s comments, I do believe he made a pertinent point when he said: “If we want a coherent response to Africa, then Africans must develop a series of policies that are far more sophisticated than a simple Marshall plan.”
Despite this bit of clarity, Macron’s comments dig up the ever-hidden stems of old imperial notions. His words remind many of us Africans of the terror our ancestors and elders went through during the years of imperial rule.
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