There seems to be a certain enlightenment in the neocolonial thinking of the French political system. As it became known recently, French senators recognised the failure of Paris’ military and diplomatic efforts in Africa and addressed an open letter to President Macron on this occasion, published in the popular Parisian publication Le Figaro.

It should be immediately noted that the message was drafted by three French senators – Deputy Speaker of the French Senate for Foreign Relations Roger Carucci, head of the political group “The Republicans” Bruno Retailleau and Chairman of the Senate Commission on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Armed Forces Christian Cambon, but it was signed by 94 senators.

If in brief, the cross-cutting theme in the letter is the idea that one after another failure of Paris in military, political and cultural cooperation with Africa has led not only to the rise of anti-French sentiment on the continent but also to the growing influence of Russia, China and the United States.

“Today Niger, yesterday Mali, Central African Republic [CAR] and Burkina Faso rejected France, French troops and French companies. After the failure of Operation Barkhan, the Wagner paramilitaries are coming in at our expense, ready to work with leaders who are building power by rallying their populations against the former colonial power.

This movement in sub-Saharan Africa is growing, with demonstrations and anti-French actions taking place even in countries as seemingly close to us as Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal,” the lawmakers wrote, emphasising the uncertainty in Paris’ relations with North Africa, namely Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.

According to the senators, in recent years, members of the French government have not made efforts in this direction, but only “masked failures”, blaming all those who disagree with the nostalgia for the policy of “French Africa”, which implied informal tutelage over the former colonies. In this regard, the letter emphasises that “today, yesterday’s French Africa is turning into a militarily Russian Africa, economically a Chinese Africa and diplomatically an American Africa.”

It is noteworthy that the authors of the letter did not miss the fact that the growing popularity of the English language on the African Continent leads to a gradual decline in the importance of French there.