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Reliving The Twilight: A review of Dibussi Tande's No Turning Ba...http://www.thefrontiertelegraph.com/content/012908/jean-marie.html1 of 32/2/08 1:04 PM
Jean-Marie Bockel: France's Secretary of State for Cooperation and theFrancophonie
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Françafrique: Is Jean-Marie Bockel another Jean-Pierre Cot?
The Origins of Françafrique
The late François-Xavier Verschave wrote on the website of Survie (www.survie-france.org), the orgnisation he founded,that at "the beginning of 1994 I coined the term"Françafrique" to describe the tip of the iceberg that isFranco-African relations, and went on to develop thisconcept in approximately twenty books and special reports.Here, briefly, I shall explain what the term refers to: thesecret criminality in the upper echelons of French politicsand economy, where a kind of underground Republic ishidden from view."Mr. Verschave continued that compelled by the forces andevents of the moment, France under Charles DeGaulleoffered "independence" to French African colonies inconformity with the new international legality put inmotion after the reversal of the German colonial andexpansionist tendencies that had brought about World WarTwo. He explained that the "unsullied tip of the iceberg"represented a narrative of "France as the best friend of Africa, development and democracy."In the shadows, however, a parallel reality was being set-up.Mr. Verschave explains that, "Jacques Foccart, 'the man inthe shadows', was given the task of maintainingdependence, using inevitably illegal, secret and shamefulmethods. He selected heads of state who were "friends of France" - through war (more than 100 000 civiliansmassacred in Cameroon from 1956 on; the Madagascanresistance was broken in 1947 by carnage of a similarmagnitude), assassination or electoral fraud. To these[African] guardians of the neo-colonial order, Paris offered a share of the income from raw materials and development aid.Military bases, the CFA franc which could be exchanged in Switzerland, the secret services and the outwardly-innocentbusinesses acting on their behalf (Elf and numerous supply or "security" companies) completed the system. Verschave continues: "so began forty years of pillage, support for dictatorships, dirty tricks and secret wars - from Biafra to thetwo Congos. Rwanda, the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Togo and others will bear the scars for manyyears to come.Gorged, burnt-out dictators, up to their eyeballs in debt, could no longer promise development, and so they brandished theirfinal weapon, the ethnic scapegoat: "If I prolong my power, by using my clan and playing on ethnic divisions, it's only to stopyour enemies from the other ethnic group replacing me. Let's exclude them as a preventative measure." We know what happenednext, in many countries: a headlong flight into political criminality to consolidate economic criminality."
The Tenacity of Françafrique
Mr. Verschave claims that, "undermined in 1990 by the growth in democracy and "Sovereign National Conferences",Françafrique very quickly came up with an arsenal of constitutional manipulation and ballot rigging which enabled it totransform the massive electoral rejection of dictatorships into approval. This double talk (French aid finances the elections;French networks reverse the results) had a profoundly debilitating effect and resulted in the legitimisation of dictatorships inTogo, Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Guinea etc."It is this system that in 1981, an idealist jurist named Jean-Pierre Cot who was put in charge of France's Ministry of Cooperation (the former Ministry of Colonies) under the newly-elected François Mitterand, was determined to abolish.
Reliving The Twilight: A review of Dibussi Tande's No Turning Ba...http://www.thefrontiertelegraph.com/content/012908/jean-marie.html2 of 32/2/08 1:04 PM
President Mitterand, was to many progressive francophone Africans a hope for a new relationship between France and theirformer African colonies after years of various Gaullist regimes' support of the most eccentric dictators and their authoritarianrule in French Africa. But no sooner had Mr. Cot started the process of reform did some "selected heads of state who were'friends of France'" in Africa prevailed upon the socialist president to remove Mr. Cot. And with no reform, Françafrique carriedon.Mr. Miterrand will leave power years later with his government under heavy clouds of accusations of having actively anddirectly participated in the genocide in Rwanda.
Battling Françafrique
On January 15 th the French publication,
L'Express
under the byline of Vincent Hugeux, reported on the New Year's address thatJean-Marie Bockel, the current Secretary of State in the French Ministry of Cooperation and the Francophonie, gave to hisdepartment and the press.In the address, Mr. Bockel spoke of his determination to create a change and a rupture with the practices of Françafrique. Mr.Bockel went as far to declare that he will "sign the death certificate of Françafrique," citing other clichés, as
L'Express
put it,such as "bad governance", "embezzlement of public funds" and "predation" under certain African regimes that is enabled bythe practices of the Françafrique networks.
L'Express
, understandably was very skeptical about the chances and ability of Mr. Bockel to "sign the death certificate of Françafrique," questioning if he has the full support of the French presidency and speculating on the reaction of the ElyséePalace, it's Cellule Africain (African Cell), and those "selected heads of state who [are] 'friends of France'" in Africa.
Françafrique: Not Going Down without a Fight
And swiftly the reaction came from some of the "selected heads of state who [are] 'friends of France'" in Africa. The Frenchpublication,
Le Monde
, on January 20 th under the byline of Phillippe Bernard, reported that Mr. Bockel's assertion that certainAfrican heads of state were guilty of the misuse of public funds along with his expression of worry in a delay of the Sarkozygovernment in bringing about a rupture with the habits of Françafrique, had elicited reaction from the heads of states of threeAfrican countries: Cameroun, Congo and Gabon.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France with almost a century of francophone Africa leadership in presidents Omar BongoOndimba (40 years and counting: 1967 to date), Paul Biya (25 years and counting: 1982 to date) and Dennis Sassou Nguesso (24 years and counting: 1997 - 1992 and 1997 to date)
According to
Le Monde
, "presidents Paul Biya (Cameroun), Denis Sassou N'Guesso (Congo) and Omar Bongo (Gabon) calledthe Elysée to protest the comments" made by Mr. Bockel as reported in
Le Monde
of Wednesday January 16."The rupture [with Françafrique] is slow in coming",
Le Monde
had quoted Mr. Bockel, "there are too many areas to acquirerents, too many intermediaries without a clear purpose, too many parallel networks to allow for a healthy partnership of equalswithout a complex" between France and Africa.According to
Le Monde
, the government of Omar Bongo Ondimba, in power for forty years, offered a public and vociferousprotest in a communiqué stating that president Omar Bongo, judges as "unacceptable," the comments of the French Secretary of State of Cooperation and the Francophonie.In the communiqué, the Gabonese government expressed its "surprise" at the "condescending clichés that make African statesappear as vulgar beggars soliciting endless charity from France" and warned that Gabon will to turn to "partners morerespecting of the dignity of its peoples and sovereignty." The communiqué was released to the press after a cabinet meeting onFriday, January 18 presided by president Omar Bongo Ondimba.African observers however, remain skeptical of the sincerity of this initiative by Mr. Bockel to upset the pleasures andprivileges that Françafrique had enabled over the years for the French political and economic elite and a few of their Africanfriends.
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