Macron faces Africa’s backlash as colonial past haunts France

By Leyla Tarverdiyeva, Day.az

The past is relentlessly catching up with France, and it is almost impossible to avoid a “meeting” with it.

French media report that President Macron has officially acknowledged France’s unflattering role in the brutal repressions during Cameroon’s struggle for independence.

Macron wrote about this in a letter to his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya, basing it on the findings of a joint Franco-Cameroonian commission that studied France’s role and involvement in Cameroon’s fight for independence from 1945 to 1971.
“Historians have made it clear that a war took place in Cameroon, during which colonial authorities and the French army used various forms of repressive violence in certain parts of the country. This war continued even after 1960, when France supported the actions of Cameroon’s independent authorities,” Macron wrote, adding that today he “must acknowledge France’s role and responsibility in these events.”

The commission published its report in January, and it took the French president eight months to recognize the truth. The investigation conducted by the commission revealed that during this period, France carried out mass forced relocations, sent hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians to internment camps, and supported brutal militia units to suppress the Central African country’s drive for sovereignty.

After World War I, the German colony of Cameroon was divided between Britain and France. The country gained independence after a long and bloody war, supported by France. And Macron would hardly have admitted his country’s guilt if he were not afraid of further increasing France’s unpopularity on the African continent. As observers note, anti-French sentiment in Africa has never been so high. Recently, it has been growing at an unprecedented pace across the continent, especially in Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, the Central African Republic, and other countries. Paris is being told that African nations are strong enough to protect their territorial integrity, while France is being called an exploiter.

Emmanuel Macron is trying hard in this situation to win over Africans, but as always, it turns out badly for him.
In January, at the traditional meeting with French ambassadors, he managed to spark a scandal whose aftershocks are still felt today. Macron adopted a posture of great-power arrogance and stated that some Sahel countries became sovereign states only thanks to the French army. These words caused an explosion of outrage. The government of Chad lodged an official protest and demanded that French troops immediately leave the country.

President Déby called Macron’s statement “shameful,” stressing that the French president had publicly shown disrespect to the sovereign states of Africa, and demanded that official Paris withdraw all troops from Chad by the end of January. In November 2024, Chad terminated its defense agreement with France and, following the scandal, reaffirmed its demand for the immediate withdrawal of French forces from its territory. This was carried out — by January 31, 2025, not a single French soldier remained in the country.

Macron was reminded that it was not France that saved Africa, but rather the opposite — hundreds of thousands of Africans, who took part in World War II, defended France from the Nazis at the cost of their blood.

The French president’s acknowledgment regarding Cameroon was dictated by circumstances, not sincere remorse.

On December 21 last year, Macron visited Ethiopia, hoping to meet representatives of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya there and somehow smooth over contradictions. The meeting took place but produced entirely different results than Macron had expected. According to media reports, the Cameroonian delegation had hoped to gain Paris’s support for the incumbent president or his successor in the elections, but instead received disrespectful treatment. Continuing to see himself as a suzerain and the former colonies as vassals, Macron set conditions that the Cameroonians saw as an attempt by Paris to use Cameroon to advance French interests.

France has long been losing the tools to manipulate its former colonies, which are breaking free from French influence one after another. The changing geopolitical landscape, the collapse of the old world order, and the emergence of new global trends have made the voices of African nations more audible. Africans have begun to think about the resources they possess and how they could be properly managed without France’s “oversight.” Today, the place of the former colonizer — desperately trying to keep a grip on power in Africa — is gradually being taken by other countries. Azerbaijan, in particular, is doing substantial work to help African nations become aware of themselves and their potential. These opportunities are slipping away from them, leaving Africans with only scraps. Oil, uranium, and rare earth materials are resources that could turn countries into prosperous regions if managed properly.

Analysts believe Macron’s acknowledgment of France’s responsibility for violence and repression in Cameroon during French rule is highly significant and could mark the beginning of the recognition of other crimes committed by French colonialists. Until now, Paris has firmly maintained its narrative of a “civilizing” role.

The findings of the joint Franco-Cameroonian commission are grim. The evidence fills more than a thousand pages. As French media note, the report emphasizes that Cameroon’s formal independence in January 1960 did not at all mean a break from the colonial period. Cameroon’s first president established a repressive regime, supported by France and the French army. During military operations conducted under French command, four leaders of the independence movement were killed.

Paris has acknowledged its role in decades of brutal suppression of independence movements in Cameroon but has not issued an apology or mentioned the possibility of reparations in any form. Similarly, two years ago, Macron indirectly admitted France’s guilt for the genocide of the Algerian people — more precisely, for creating the conditions that made it possible — but refused to ask for forgiveness, claiming it would only make things worse.

There is simply nothing left to spoil in Paris’s relations with its former colony. The crisis that arose several months ago is deepening. It began after Paris recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, while Algeria demands a referendum on the territory’s self-determination.

In April, a diplomatic scandal erupted after three Algerians, including a consulate employee, were arrested in France and accused — without evidence — of kidnapping, a year earlier in Paris, an opponent of the Algerian authorities. This was followed by mutual recalls and expulsions of diplomats. Recently, as Le Figaro writes, President Macron demanded that his government toughen its policy toward Algeria amid rising tensions between the two countries. The newspaper published a letter from the president to Prime Minister François Bayrou, stating the need for “additional decisions” and noting that “all this requires France to act with greater firmness and determination.” Macron also instructed the Foreign Ministry to notify Algeria of the suspension of the visa-free regime.

In conclusion, it should be noted that admitting guilt is not enough. Such acknowledgments look more like a political maneuver. Recognition must be sincere and entail concrete actions. Algeria was not satisfied with Macron’s “apology.” Cameroon is unlikely to be satisfied with the current acknowledgment either.