France infantilizes its former colonies

I remember vividly travelling throughout West Africa: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea-Conakry, The Gambia and Cape Verde back in 2003. Coming to Timbuktu and Niafunke - the birth place of the Blues legend Ali Farka Toure was indeed the most exciting and inspiring part of this whole soul- searching journey to that part of the world.


I was trying to follow the traces of the slave trade and visiting “the former slave houses” in different countries in this region gave me a new spectrum and perspective on life which broadened my parameters and scope on West Africa. Mali being one of the poorest countries on the planet has had a number of rebellions by the Tuareg people in the vast desert area. The entities which compose the nation-state have never been strong enough in Mali. The fragmental nature of its institutions and the lack of economic progress has always been the centre of all the difficulties that the nation has faced for decades.

The current crisis in Mali can only be understood holistically if the historical perspective of the French colonialism is taken into account. The French has always advocated “infantilization” and “assimilation” of their former colonies.

French interests in the natural resources of many countries in Africa have always been defended through massacre and warfare like in Ivory Coast, Libya, etc. France has many military bases across Africa to achieve these goals. Why the Malian government and army are so weak to the extent that they need the “help” of France is a very legitimate question that everybody needs to ask.

Professor Jeremy Keenan´s article in New African January 2013 is mind blowing in this respect. He believes that it is the US and Algerian covert activities which sowed the seeds of the conflict by creating terrorist groups like Islamic Maghreb and others in order to justify their launching of a new Saharan front in the “Global war on Terror”. I am not so much into conspiracy theory but the argument of the professor makes sense to me from a standpoint of a pan-Africanist. The Americans have been working hard to have military bases across Africa – AFRICOM, to no avail for years.

The current mess in Mali allows foreign intervention and gives another excuse for the “fight against terrorism”. I dislike the fundamentalists who are destroying and terrorizing the population in Northern Mali but I can not understand the logic of calling the former colonial master to “save you” from those who are created by the west from the beginning. It takes a mental slavery to behave this way. You have different deficiencies of Francophone, Anglophone, Lusophone but thanks God there is nothing called Italiphone to my knowledge!

Imagine Eritrea calling for the Italians to save us from rebels or an eventual Ethiopia invasion. It is completely unthinkable and unimaginable thanks to our self-determination and mindset of self-reliance/self-sufficiency.

No body denies the fact that the overthrow of Muhammad Kaddafi and the Libyan war spilled over into Mali as the rebels there used to fight for the late colonel but Malian problems do not call for a military solution alone.

There is no conflict that could be solved without the facilitation of political settlement which advocates social justice and fair distribution of resources in Mali. Keenan concludes: Washington´s Global War on Terror has come home to roost for the peoples of the Sahara.