Demonstration seeking the end of the French intervention in Africa. Picture credit: Kilaye Bationo/AP
, noted that the recent coups in West and Central Africa occurred in the same Francophone Zone and that they are all landlocked. Mrs Susan Awasom, a university lecturer in the Anglophone area of Cameroon, lamented that the Economic Community of West African States , which has not been able to raise a voice against France’s looting of the resources of African countries, suddenly finds its voice against the coup in Niger and even threatens to invade that country. She said France is propping up systems like “Biyaism” , while depleting the resources of the continent.
My submission at the 26 August conference was that since France invaded Egypt 225 years ago, it has dug in, refusing to let go of a continent it regards as its Garden of Eden, from which to eat and drink eternally. I explained that France is so greedy and vicious that it is ready to do anything to maintain its grip on Africa.
I also recalled the fact that the first Togolese President, Sylvanus Olympio, was overthrown by France in Africa’s first coup when he decided to establish a central bank for Togo, rather than remain in the Franc CFA zone. In that case, a sergeant in the French Legion, Gnansingbe Eyadema, dragged Olympio from the United States Embassy, where he had jumped into, and executed him at the gates of the embassy.
I submitted that France should be forced out of Niger, as the citizens are demanding and that any military invasion of Niger in the name of removing coup plotters should be seen by Africans as an invasion of the continent.