President Emmanuel Macron began a visit to Africa on Saturday aimed at renewing France's commitment to the continent, after years of tense relations with its former French-speaking colonies.
In Kenya, an English-speaking country, Macron will co-chair a summit bringing together African leaders and business leaders on Monday and Tuesday, as he seeks to consolidate his legacy one year before the end of his term.
He will also travel to Egypt and Ethiopia as part of his Africa tour.
"The Africa Forward summit marks an important step in relations between France and the African continent", declared the Élysée.
"The meeting will focus in particular on economic development and cross-border investments", indicated the French presidency, stressing that it would be the first forum of this type organized in an English-speaking country.
Macron hopes to highlight the renewal of relations between France and the continent as an "assessment of his African policy", said a diplomat.
Anti-French sentiment is very strong in certain former African colonies, as the continent once again becomes a diplomatic battlefield and Russian and Chinese influence continues to grow.
Once master of vast swaths of North, Central and West Africa, France has played a crucial role in the continent's postcolonial history, intervening several times militarily since the early 1960s.
France has committed to abandoning the so-called "Francafrique" strategy, under which Paris sought to keep French-speaking Africa under its control through political collusion, privileged access for French companies and opaque financial agreements, including acts of corruption.
"Anglophone Africa"
Macron went further than his predecessors in recognizing the abuses committed by France during the colonial era in countries such as Rwanda, Cameroon and Senegal. However, he ruled out any official excuse for the acts of torture and other abuses perpetrated by French troops in Algeria.
Before his departure, the French Parliament definitively adopted a law aimed at simplifying the restitution of works of art looted during the colonial era.
But under his mandate, French forces deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger withdrew following successive coups, as the juntas of these countries moved closer to Russia.
The severing of these ties came after Macron summoned the leaders of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania to the southwestern French city of Pau in 2020, threatening to withdraw French troops.
This meeting was widely seen as a return to colonial times and worsened the crisis in relations between France and the Sahel countries.
Amaka Anku, head of the Africa section at Eurasia Group, a risk analysis firm, said Macron should not be blamed for France's loss of influence in the Sahel.
"It’s been a long time, it’s hereditary", she told AFP.
The best thing Macron did was try to develop France's relations with English-speaking Africa. "
Military leaders from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will not attend the summit.
"Too much baggage"
She said Macron was seen by many in Africa as a leader who had "failed to grasp" the changing public opinion and was seen as "arrogant and paternalistic".
Some still remember how Macron almost provoked a diplomatic incident with then-Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore during a speech to students in Ouagadougou in 2017.
Some complained of repeated power outages, and when Kabore briefly left the room, Macron joked that he had gone to repair the air conditioning.
Critics also pointed out that the reform of the CFA franc, a currency backed by France and used by some African countries, seen as a relic of the colonial past, had not had much impact.
Former French ambassador Nicolas Normand described this reform as "homeopathic", criticizing Macron for not grasping the symbolic weight of a legacy from the colonial era.
Before traveling to Kenya, Macron will inaugurate the new campus of a university in Alexandria, northern Egypt, alongside President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
On Wednesday, the French president will travel to Addis Ababa where he will meet with Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
