tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/french-colonies-39097/articlesFrench colonies – The Conversation2024-01-23T13:25:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2202052024-01-23T13:25:57Z2024-01-23T13:25:57ZHow the word ‘voodoo’ became a racial slur<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570735/original/file-20240122-20-mdblis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C10%2C3607%2C2392&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An engraving from 1992 representing a voodoo rite in Haiti.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-voodoo-in-haiti-in-1992-engraving-representing-a-voodoo-news-photo/113929671?adppopup=true"> Nicolas Jallot/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For decades, it has been common for people to throw around terms like “voodoo politics,” “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/voodooeconomics.asp">voodoo economics</a>,” “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/rejecting-voodoo-science-in-the-courtroom-1474328199">voodoo science</a>” and “<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/voodoo-medicine-time-to-s_b_11474550?ec_carp=6516617630977493781">voodoo medicine</a>” to reference something that they think is ridiculous, idiotic or fraudulent.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096071/">Horror movies</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0793707/">crime shows</a> often tell stories about evil “voodoo doctors” who terrorize their victims with black magic. Even Disney’s first movie with a Black princess, released in 2009, had a “voodoo doctor” as the villain. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these shows and movies promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination. In my 2023 book, “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/46772">Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur</a>,” I argue that voodoo is an extremely problematic term with a deeply racist history. </p>
<p>Most African diaspora religions, which are religions that have roots in Africa, have been mislabeled as voodoo at some point in time. This is especially true of Haitian Vodou – the religion that is most frequently stereotyped by outsiders as “voodoo” in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>Early uses of the term</h2>
<p>The term voodoo traces its roots back to a word in the Fon language in West Africa that means “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vodou">spirit” or “deity</a>.” The French adopted a version of this term, “vaudou” or “vaudoux,” to refer to African spiritual practices in their colonies in Louisiana and Saint-Domingue – modern-day Haiti. </p>
<p>Later, “vaudou” evolved into “voodoo” in the English-speaking world. It first became a household term in the U.S. in the 1860s and 1870s. When the U.S. public was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/46772">first introduced</a> to voodoo, it was typically in newspaper articles and other publications that described African American spiritual practices in an exaggerated way, often retelling bizarre or even fabricated stories as if they were common practice. </p>
<p>Most of the time, the authors used these narratives about voodoo to argue that African Americans were unfit for citizenship, voting rights and holding public office because of their so-called superstitions. </p>
<p>In fact, the first time the term was widely used was after the Union forces seized New Orleans during the U.S. Civil War. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197689400.001.0001">Confederate supporters argued</a> that the popularity of voodoo in Union-controlled New Orleans showed the barbarity that Africans would return to if not under the control of white people. </p>
<p>Later, in the 20th century, claims about voodoo were used as one way to justify the U.S. colonization of Caribbean countries with large Black populations. In particular, fabricated <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/McClure_s_Magazine/RZZEAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=voodoo+cuba&pg=PA502&printsec=frontcover">claims that Black Cubans were</a> practicing the ritual murder of children as part of their voodoo practices circulated in the media to support sending forces to the island in the 1900s and 1910s.</p>
<p>Similarly, in the early 20th century, <a href="https://archive.org/details/whereblackrulesw00pric">journalists, travelers and others falsely claimed</a> that U.S. intervention was necessary because Haitians were engaging in cannibalism, human sacrifice and snake worship as part of their voodoo rituals. Historian <a href="https://people.miami.edu/profile/2d45ee761ea7c9776e6f13729f2ebea3">Kate Ramsey</a> writes in her 2011 book, “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo10454972.html">The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti</a>,” that while U.S. Marines were occupying Haiti from 1915 to 1934, they persecuted and prosecuted devotees – arresting the people they found participating in ceremonies and burning their sacred objects. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the first half of the 20th century, references to voodoo continued to be a way to speak disparagingly about Black populations in the U.S. Even the founders of the <a href="https://ia904601.us.archive.org/19/items/the-voodoo-cult-of-detroit/The%20Voodoo%20Cult%20of%20Detroit.pdf">Nation of Islam</a> were stereotyped as a “voodoo cult” after an alleged member committed a highly publicized murder in 1932.</p>
<p>Allegations that Black Muslims practiced human sacrifice followed the group for decades, long after the person who committed the crime was determined to be legally insane and sent to an asylum. </p>
<h2>Prejudices linger</h2>
<p>This history has left a stain on public perceptions of voodoo that is difficult to wash away. The best example is the treatment of devotees of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-haitian-voodoo-119621">Vodou, a religion in Haiti</a> that can trace many of its beliefs and practices back to West and Central Africa. Vodou centers on honoring the ancestors and venerating spirits known as the Lwa. </p>
<p>Vodou was frequently labeled as “voodoo” in Anglophone newspapers and other literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and devotees were falsely accused of committing atrocities like cannibalism and human sacrifice during their ceremonies. Although Vodou has no ultimate source of evil in its cosmology, it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-haitian-voodoo-119621">often denounced</a> as devil worship. These myths have led to discrimination and violence against devotees.</p>
<p>In 2010, some Haitians and some foreigners blamed Vodou, which they often misspelled as “voodoo,” for the tragic earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak that devastated Haiti. The most famous remarks came from the late <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/01/pat_robertson_blames_haitian_d.html">Pat Robertson</a>, an Evangelical minister and political commentator, who claimed that the earthquake was God’s retribution against Haitians for holding a Vodou ceremony. He described the Vodou ceremony as a pact with the devil to assist in their revolution against the French. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a wide-brimmed hat holds her hands up as she prays, with some other people in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An old woman prays in an earthquake-damaged church in the Ti Ayiti neighborhood Feb. 23, 2010, in Cité Soleil, Haiti, after a Christian mob attacked a Haitian Vodou ceremony for earthquake victims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/just-paces-away-from-where-a-christian-mob-attacked-a-news-photo/96989923?adppopup=true%2A%2A%2A%2A">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within Haiti, some people <a href="https://haitiantimes.com/2020/01/12/vodou-was-once-blamed-for-the-haiti-earthquake-10-years-later-its-seeing-a-slow-revival/">committed acts of violence</a> against devotees and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934710394443">denied them the emergency aid</a> that was sent to quake victims. Later that year, violence escalated as some Haitians blamed Vodou for the cholera outbreak. In November and December of 2010, lynch mobs <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-12073029">violently killed</a> dozens of Haitian Vodou priests. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, discrimination and the violence perpetrated against Haitian Vodou and <a href="https://www.religiousracism.org/brazil">other African diaspora religious groups</a> often goes <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-1-64602-103-1.html">unpunished and unnoticed</a>. In fact, a recent survey suggests that a large portion of the U.S. public subscribes to the stereotypes about voodoo that led to these attacks.</p>
<p>With support from the Public Religion Research Institute, my fellow researchers and I <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/discrimination-against-voodoo-and-santeria/">asked 1,000 adults</a> living in the U.S. whether they used the term “voodoo.” Two in 10 respondents, or about 20%, said they had used or heard others use the term at least once a month. The survey found fewer than 1 in 4 considered voodoo to be a religion. </p>
<p>Further, approximately 3 in 10 respondents believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to be involved in criminal activity than the average person, and an astonishing 64% said they believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to practice black magic or witchcraft than the average person. </p>
<p>This survey shows the pervasiveness of these biases that developed to support slavery and imperialism. Therefore, I argue that when someone makes a statement like, “That just sounds like some ‘voodoo’ to me!” they are co-signing the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Boaz is a public fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). In this capacity, Dr. Boaz and three other fellows received a microgrant from the PRRI to conduct the survey mentioned in this piece. </span></em></p>Shows, movies and day-to-day language promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination, writes a scholar of Africana studies.Danielle N. Boaz, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122092023-08-25T11:17:05Z2023-08-25T11:17:05ZNiger’s resource paradox: what should make the country rich has made it a target for predators<p>A month after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-caused-the-coup-in-niger-an-expert-outlines-three-driving-factors-210721">coup in Niger</a> that toppled the democratically elected civilian government of Mohamed Bazoum, the country’s neighbours are still debating the possibility of <a href="https://theconversation.com/niger-coup-why-an-ecowas-led-military-intervention-is-unlikely-211136">military intervention</a>. </p>
<p>The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) – a coalition of west African countries, which includes Niger – has said it intends to send in a taskforce to topple the military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, which ousted Bazoum on July 26.</p>
<p>But the plan to intervene is not without controversy. Niger, a landlocked nation, shares borders with Mali, Algeria, Libya, Chad, Benin and Burkina Faso. These countries <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/6/niger-coup-divisions-as-ecowas-military-threat-fails-to-play-out">have expressed solidarity with the military junta</a> and have committed to oppose any potential Ecowas intervention. </p>
<p>France, which <a href="https://capstone.ndu.edu/Portals/83/20-2%20Africa%20Field%20Study%20Book%20II%20Final%20reduced%20Part%20II.pdf">occupied Niger</a> from 1890 until independence in 1960, has also considered intervention – it has a small contingent of troops in the country ostensibly to combat jihadi insurgency in the Sahel region – which the junta has given them <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/08/23/niger-group-calls-for-withdrawal-of-french-troops//#:%7E:text=Some%201%2C500%20French%20soldiers%20have,its%20Sahel%20operation%20last%20year.&text=On%20August%203%2C%20Niamey's%20ruling,a%20one%2Dmonth%20notice%20period.">notice to withdraw</a>. Algeria has also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/22/african-union-issues-ambiguous-view-on-possible-niger-military-intervention#:%7E:text=While%20the%20AU%20issued%20a,diplomatic%20efforts%20to%20restore%20democracy">denied France permission</a> to fly over the country.</p>
<p>For now, the situation remains fluid and uncertain. But beneath the surface of daily news headlines is an intricate web of geopolitical competition and strategic agendas that have profound consequences for the Nigerien people. </p>
<p>The recent coup underscores <a href="https://unherd.com/2023/08/niger-and-the-collapse-of-frances-empire/">a geopolitical rivalry</a> deeply rooted in colonial and neo-colonial legacies and intensified by some western nations’ drive for the control of Niger’s resources.</p>
<p>Although Niger <a href="https://unherd.com/2023/08/niger-and-the-collapse-of-frances-empire/">grapples with extreme poverty</a>, leading to widespread malnutrition and hunger among its citizens, it is the world’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/01/uranium-niger-france-coup/">seventh-biggest producer of uranium</a>. This juxtaposition of mineral wealth and societal poverty underscores the irony of a nation abundant in resources yet plagued by profound economic hardships.</p>
<p>First <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-g-n/niger.aspx#:%7E:text=Uranium%20was%20discovered%20at%20Azelik,(CEA)%20initiated%20further%20studies.">discovered in 1957 at Azelik</a> by a French colonial expedition looking for copper deposits, Uranium now ranks as Niger’s second-largest export in monetary value – <a href="https://www.powerengineeringint.com/nuclear/coup-in-niger-brings-countrys-uranium-resources-into-sharper-focus/">surpassed only by gold</a>. The country is a <a href="https://www.powerengineeringint.com/nuclear/coup-in-niger-brings-countrys-uranium-resources-into-sharper-focus/">principal supplier of uranium to the European Union (EU)</a> and contributes between 15% and 17% of the uranium fuelling France’s electricity generation. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the country <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/video/20230814-power-cuts-worsen-in-niger-following-sanctions-from-ecowas">struggles to produce its own electricity</a> because Nigeria <a href="https://theconversation.com/niger-coup-west-african-union-has-pledged-to-intervene-but-some-members-support-the-plotters-210990">recently terminated</a> its power supply to the nation as a sanction against the military junta, leaving much of the country in darkness.</p>
<h2>Western exploitation</h2>
<p>Given its abundant natural resources, it seems counterintuitive for Niger to rank among the world’s poorest nations. Yet its economic and political struggles have deep roots in historical <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/world/africa/niger-coup-france-west-africa.html">foreign interventions, exploitation and resource extraction</a>. This situation has, for decades, been further compounded by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/timeline-a-history-of-coups-in-niger">misguided and ineffective leadership</a>, often conniving in exploitation by foreign interests.</p>
<p>While some Ecowas members oppose the coup in Niger and have threatened <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/18/africa/niger-ecowas-d-day-military-intervention-intl-hnk/index.html">military intervention against the coup leaders</a>, some western countries are manoeuvring to uphold their interests. The Nigerian senate <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-senate-cautions-against-niger-military-intervention/a-66450388">opposes military intervention</a>, with one of its <a href="https://tribuneonlineng.com/niger-coup-dont-allow-us-france-push-you-to-unnecessary-war-orji-kalu-tells-tinubu/">members alleging</a> that Ecowas would merely be doing France and America’s bidding. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu suggested that if there is to be military action, it should be carried out by French and US troops.</p>
<p>Colonial powers and other major geopolitical actors have <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ee6fb170-3284-46fa-9eb7-da64212c4989">profoundly influenced</a> Niger’s contemporary situation. France, referred to by the New York Times recently as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/world/africa/niger-coup-france-west-africa.html">Former Coloniser that Stayed</a>”, has already warned that any attack on its interests in Niger will be <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2023/07/30/france-warns-attacks-on-its-interests-in-niger-will-not-be-tolerated">met with retaliation</a>. Meanwhile the reported presence of Wagner Group mercenaries in the country, after a request from the coup leaders, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/05/niger-junta-wagner-group-mali-mohamed-bazoum-ecowas/">is a proxy for Russian interests in Niger</a>. </p>
<p>But following the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66599733">reported death of Wagner Group boss, Yevgeny Progozhin</a>, after his private jet is understood to have crashed on a trip from St Petersburg to Moscow on August 23, the status of the Wagner Group activities in Niger – and Africa generally – is uncertain. However, their operations may come under the direct control of Russia’s military. </p>
<h2>African resources, western interests</h2>
<p>Another important resource issue threatened by instability in Niger is the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/african-countries-seek-to-revive-trans-saharan-gas-pipeline-dream/a-62778681">trans-Saharan gas pipeline (TSGP)</a>, designed to transport natural gas from Nigeria through Niger and on to Algeria and then to Europe. One of the drivers of this project in the past two years has been the European need to wean itself off Russian gas supplies in light of the war in Ukraine.</p>
<p>Yet again, western resource needs are dictating events in supposedly independent and sovereign African countries.</p>
<p>The dominant narrative in west Africa frequently presents foreign interventions as benevolent efforts to stabilise the Sahel region, in particular, against the threat of jihadi insurgency. Yet a deeper examination <a href="https://journal.iag.ir/article_118383_en.html">uncovers a more intricate reality</a>. As western powers strive to shape political dynamics in Niger – driven not just by a desire for stability but also to preserve their dominance and <a href="https://unherd.com/2023/08/niger-and-the-collapse-of-frances-empire/">control over resource allocation</a> – they portray Niger, and by extension, Africa, as mere markets within the global economy. This ignores the potential <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/niger/niger-coup-could-exacerbate-humanitarian-crisis">humanitarian consequences</a> of such interventions for the people of Niger and west Africa in general.</p>
<p>As Niger faces political instability and possible violent conflict, there’s a pressing need to critically evaluate the motives and repercussions of foreign intervention. </p>
<p>Beyond the veneer of the quest for democracy and stability, the various players’ deeper strategic intentions must be scrutinised. This is the key to understanding the multifaceted dynamics in the Sahel region and their broader global implications.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A geopolitical struggle for valuable resources such as uranium is behind the wrangling over Niger.Francis Okpaleke, PhD Candidate, Politics and International Security, University of WaikatoOlumba E. Ezenwa, Doctoral Research Fellow, Conflict, Violence, & Terrorism Research Centre, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1919092022-10-11T09:22:11Z2022-10-11T09:22:11ZBurkina Faso coup raises questions about growing Russian involvement in west Africa<p>As if fighting in what – for now, at least – appears to be a losing battle in Ukraine weren’t enough, the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/02/08/russias-wagner-group-in-africa-influence-commercial-concessions-rights-violations-and-counterinsurgency-failure/">Wagner Group</a>, a private army of Russian mercenaries commanded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Vladimir Putin, is heavily committed in a range of conflicts and security crises in west Africa.</p>
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<p>Already involved in Libya, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Mali, Sudan and Madagascar, the Wagner Group is engaged in training, fighting anti-government forces and brutally quashing protests, all supporting Russia’s fight to supplant the influence of French and the UK’s former colonial powers in Africa. </p>
<p>Mali, a country at the core of violent extremism spreading throughout west African Sahel, has <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2022/08/10/mali-receives-six-more-warplanes-from-russia-in-a-historic-ceremony_5993097_124.html">pledged allegiance to Russia</a> at the expense of France, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/world/africa/mali-france-military-operation.html">wound up its operations there in August</a>, despite nine years and a total cost of billions of euros for supporting its military. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in neighbouring Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63171771">took power in a coup d'etat on September 30</a>, citing the deteriorating security situation in Burkina Faso as his reason for seizing power. His coup came just nine months after Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba <a href="https://theconversation.com/burkina-faso-the-key-role-played-by-the-media-in-the-latest-coup-175757">toppled the previous</a> regime in a similar fashion. September 30 was the tenth coup since the west African country gained its independence in 1960. </p>
<p>The Burkina Faso government reportedly only controls <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/18/state-controls-only-60-percent-of-burkina-faso-mediator">60% of the country</a>. Terrorist attacks, mainly from armed Islamist groups, have been responsible for an almost complete breakdown in security in many regions. During Damiba’s first 100 days as president, there were 610 terrorist attacks resulting in <a href="https://www.leconomistedufaso.bf/2022/05/23/100-jours-de-damiba-610-attaques-dont-567-personnes-tuees/">567 fatalities</a>.</p>
<p>Prigozhin <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-63171771">congratulated Traore</a> afteeer the coup as “a truly worthy and courageous son of his motherland”.</p>
<p>“The people of Burkina Faso were under the yoke of the colonialists, who robbed the people as well as played their vile games, trained, supported gangs of bandits and caused much grief to the local population,” he said.</p>
<p>Prigozhin’s statement reflects both <a href="https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1335015/politique/russie-afrique-de-kemi-seba-a-nathalie-yamb-les-influenceurs-pro-poutine-du-continent/">anti-French and pro-Russian sentiment</a> in Burkina Faso – and across West Africa, which has played into the hands of the Wagner Group, despite its links to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/04/russian-mercenaries-wagner-group-linked-to-civilian-massacres-in-mali">massive civilian casualties</a> and allegations of grift surrounding the group’s acquisition of major long-term <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1058">mining concessions</a>.</p>
<h2>Fake news</h2>
<p>The Russian aggression on Ukraine is barely making the news in West Africa – so Moscow can still shine as the contemporary defender of the USSR’s self-awarded identity as a champion against imperialism. There is little critical analysis of the situation in mainstream media. Instead, <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/les_manipulations_de_l_information_2__cle04b2b6.pdf">information</a> is taken from Russian social media sites, filling the void with misinformation and fake news, aggravating the already tense situation.</p>
<p><a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/social-media-stats/all/burkina-faso">Facebook</a> is by far the most popular social media platform in Burkina Faso, used by an estimated 94% of the 2.2 million social media users in the country. They are exposed to comments accusing France, among other things, of <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20210928-photos-of-arms-seizure-circulate-on-facebook-with-france-implicated">arming terrorists</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Facebook post written in French post alleging that France is the top financer of terrorism in the Sahel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489050/original/file-20221010-16-ae7lwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489050/original/file-20221010-16-ae7lwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489050/original/file-20221010-16-ae7lwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489050/original/file-20221010-16-ae7lwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489050/original/file-20221010-16-ae7lwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489050/original/file-20221010-16-ae7lwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489050/original/file-20221010-16-ae7lwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Facebook post alleging that France is the top financer of terrorism in the Sahel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This mistrust is expressed on Facebook and WhatsApp. Meanwhile, in the mainstream media, including TV and radio, critical analysis is largely absent, since experts, analysts and academics are taking a step back, according to <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mahamoudou-savadogo-823091">Mahamadou Savadogo</a>, an academic and security analyst in Burkina Faso, who spoke with us for this article. This is partly out of a lack of credible information – but also because of the risk of speaking out in a particularly volatile situation.</p>
<p>These fake messages have real effects. According to Savadogo, the media have been instrumental in swaying public opinion and are being manipulated by those in power, or trying to gain power. </p>
<p>On October 1, Traoré declared on state television that the French had <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/burkina-junta-chief-urges-putschists-to-come-to-their-senses-/6772244.html">provided refuge to Damiba</a>, saying Damiba was “believed to have taken refuge in the French base at Kamboinsin in order to plan a counter-offensive to stir up trouble in our defence and security forces”. The French government issued a <a href="https://bf.ambafrance.org/Situation-Burkina-Faso-Declaration-porte-parole-MEAE">categorical denial</a>, but Traoré’s allegation went viral and led to increased social unrest culminating in the French embassy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/01/burkina-faso-african-unions-condemn-latest-power-grab">being set alight</a> the same day. </p>
<p>There were also anti-French demonstrations in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63081706">Bobo-Dioulasso</a>, the country’s second city, where the gate of the French Institute was also reportedly set ablaze by protesters.</p>
<p>Questions abound both about who is behind much of the misinformation on social media and who is funding the demonstrations and this coup. Savadogo commented on the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-63171771">large numbers of Russian flags</a> that appeared on the streets of the capital. He asked about where they could have come from so quickly. But such images, combined with anti-France posts on social media, are indicative of a turn away from France in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/03/burkina-faso-coup-fears-growing-russian-mercenary-presence-sahel-north-africa">favour of Russia</a>. </p>
<p>While there is no direct evidence connecting the Wagner Group to this latest coup, the mercenary group appears poised to <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/05/burkina-faso-coup-junta-russia-ecowas/">take advantage of the turmoil</a> to establish another power base in Africa, and arguably a beachhead for Russia itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel Klimis received funding from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affaires and Development cooperation, allowing several missions on the field in Burkina Faso. He is affiliated as a member of the board with Association pour les Nations Unies (APNU), a not-for-profit organisation based in Belgium. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Heywood, Lassané Yaméogo, and Marie Fierens do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Burkina Faso looks to be the latest west African state where Russian influence is on the rise.Emma Heywood, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Journalism, Radio and Communication, University of SheffieldEmmanuel Klimis, Lecturer and Researcher in Politics, Université Saint-Louis - BruxellesLassané Yaméogo, Chargé de Recherche au CNRST Burkina Faso & Chercheur associé à l'ULB, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)Marie Fierens, Researcher, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839542022-05-30T14:16:57Z2022-05-30T14:16:57ZHaiti has suffered hugely over centuries but its revolution was stunningly innovative<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465992/original/file-20220530-12-q0hrht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C2645%2C1562&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>Since the New York Times published its recent series of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-history-colonized-france.html">bombshell articles</a> about the crippling reparations that France imposed on Haiti after it won independence in 1804, much has been written about how this 150 million franc “indemnity” had virtually doomed the fledgling country before it had a chance to establish itself. The New York Times pieces outlined the huge long-term impact of these enforced payments and demonstrate that they cost the Haitian economy billions of dollars in lost economic growth, affecting the island well into the 21st century. </p>
<p>Historians of Haiti have remarked that the New York Times’ core claims are <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/23/new-york-times-historian-haiti-authoritative-source-00034511">hardly groundbreaking</a>. The long-term effects of the debt on the Haitian economy have long been acknowledged, researched and taught. Nevertheless the newspaper’s detailed account, with its additional evidence and fresh calculations, has allowed the story to achieve the kind of public visibility most professional historians can only dream of. This is undoubtedly positive. </p>
<p>But this account, for all its moral force and political relevance, also reinforces a longstanding public perception of Haitian history as a story of unremitting failure. Of course this is justified in many ways. To this day, Haiti remains one of the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview">poorest countries</a> in the world, for which France (along with the United States and others) bears undeniable responsibility. But Haitian independence deserves to be remembered for more than its long, tragic aftermath. It was, in fact, a stunningly innovative event which dramatically changed the course of world history. </p>
<h2>Freedom fighters</h2>
<p>Before the Haitian revolution, Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was then known) was France’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Saint-Domingue">largest and richest</a> colony. Its population primarily consisted of enslaved black people, who lived and worked under a small elite of white plantation owners. When the French revolution broke out in 1789, it triggered a series of <a href="https://historyincharts.com/timeline-of-the-haitian-revolution/">revolts and conflicts</a> on the island. These involved white colonists, black enslaved people, free black and mixed-race people, as well as the French, British and Spanish states. </p>
<p>By 1804, the black and mixed-race insurgents had joined forces and claimed victory. White colonists were driven out or killed. On January 1 1804 a former slave, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, <a href="https://today.duke.edu/showcase/haitideclaration/declarationstext.html">proclaimed the independence</a> of the island in the name of the Haitian people. </p>
<p>It was a complex, lengthy, shockingly violent process. For a long time, it was treated as a bloody footnote in Atlantic history, and left out of the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691161280/the-age-of-the-democratic-revolution">triumphant accounts</a> that narrated “the age of democratic revolutions”. But it is now increasingly being viewed by historians as a major turning point in world history. There are several reasons for this.</p>
<h2>Emancipation in the New World</h2>
<p>The first, and most immediately evident reason, relates to the history of colonial slavery. The Haitian revolution was a multifaceted conflict – but from 1791 its driving force was the great antislavery uprising spearheaded by the charismatic leader <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figure/toussaint-louverture">Toussaint Louverture</a>. To this day it remains the only truly successful slave revolt in history.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="BUst of Haitian revolutionary general Toussaint Louverture in Montreal, Canada." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465997/original/file-20220530-22-a2tuj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465997/original/file-20220530-22-a2tuj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465997/original/file-20220530-22-a2tuj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465997/original/file-20220530-22-a2tuj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465997/original/file-20220530-22-a2tuj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465997/original/file-20220530-22-a2tuj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465997/original/file-20220530-22-a2tuj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Military genius: Haitian general Toussaint Louverture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Coastal Elite from Halifax, Canada/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It would be difficult to overstate the impact of the Haitian example on the history of emancipation in the New World. It raised the old spectre of slave rebellion and shocked slave owners across the Americas, but it also informed the British emancipation debate. In the 1810s the support Haiti provided to <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/bolivar-haiti/">Simón Bolívar’s liberation movement</a> played a major part in ending slavery in northern South America. Haitian emancipation also encouraged uprisings and rebellions in the US, Cuba and Barbados. It continued to inspire black people across the New World until the final abolition of slavery by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/23/brazil-struggle-ethnic-racial-identity">Brazil in 1888</a>. </p>
<p>The Haitian revolutionaries also durably transformed the international landscape. Emerging from an 18th-century world ruled by monarchies and colonial empires, Haiti became the first black republic in the world. It was only the second state to claim independence from a European empire, after the US. </p>
<p>Notably, it was the first to be ruled by formerly enslaved people. Independent Haiti was, in many ways, ahead of its time – it would take another century and a half for another significant decolonisation movement to emerge and finally topple the great European empires, in the second half of the 20th century.</p>
<h2>Universal human rights</h2>
<p>Amid all the tumult and upheavals of revolution, the Haitian people’s claim to independence was also philosophically groundbreaking. The <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2014/01/haitian-declaration-of-independence-meaning-audience/">Declaration of Independence of 1804</a> ended the Haitian revolution with a powerful assertion of national sovereignty: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth … we must live independent or die.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By justifying independence in terms of the universal rights of mankind, Haitian leaders were deploying the same novel philosophical principles that underpinned the American and French revolutions. But, unlike the American and French republics, the new Haitian nation was to be rooted in its radical commitment to universal emancipation. </p>
<p>For all the above reasons, the Haitian revolution deserves to be remembered on its own terms – not only as the origin of a historical injustice, but also as one of the great revolutions of the Enlightenment, and a forerunner of modern decolonisation movements.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183954/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Plassart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Haitian revolution was the first by a former slave colony and was to inspire other emancipation movements across the New World.Anna Plassart, Senior Lecturer in History, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1641182021-07-08T12:37:25Z2021-07-08T12:37:25ZHaiti’s president assassinated: 5 essential reads to give you key history and insight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410218/original/file-20210707-19-vhpeoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C1597%2C1058&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Haitian police patrol outside the presidential residence in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021, after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-haitian-police-and-forensics-patrol-the-area-news-photo/1233850932?adppopup=true">Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/07/world/jovenel-moise-assassinated-killed">assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse</a> risks destabilizing the Caribbean country, which was already in crisis over alarmingly high violence and Moïse’s increasingly undemocratic behavior.</p>
<p>Here’s some essential background on Haiti, starting with the painful history that underlies so much of Haiti’s modern struggles. </p>
<h2>1. France’s ‘extortion’</h2>
<p>Haiti officially declared its independence from colonizer France in 1804 after a revolutionary war staged by enslaved laborers and inspired by the American Revolution. </p>
<p>But the French “never quite gave up on reconquering their former colony,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-france-extorted-haiti-the-greatest-heist-in-history-137949">according to Marlene Daut, a historian of Haiti at the University of Virginia</a>. </p>
<p>Between 1814 and 1825, France sent repeated delegations to Haiti to negotiate with its new leaders about restoring some formal relationship with France. When that failed, King Charles X in 1825 decreed that France would recognize Haitian independence, but only if the new country paid France the exorbitant price of 150 million francs. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335367/original/file-20200515-138639-aqm00i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A facsimile of a bank note for 30 million francs that Haiti borrowed from a French bank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044094146602&view=1up&seq=131">Lepelletier de Saint-Remy, 'Étude Et Solution Nouvelle de la Question Haïtienne.'</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“The sum was meant to compensate the French colonists for their lost revenues from slavery,” says Daut. “Rejection of the ordinance almost certainly meant war.” </p>
<p>Under threat of violence, the Haitian leader, Jean-Pierre Boyer, signed a document agreeing to pay France “in five equal installments … the sum of 150,000,000 francs, destined to indemnify the former colonists.”</p>
<p>The deal forced Haiti to take out enormous loans. The young nation defaulted on them, despite Boyer’s levying punishing taxes on the Haitian people in his failed effort to pay them off. Its debt to France took 122 years to pay off.</p>
<p>“This was not diplomacy,” Daut says of France’s demand for payment. “It was extortion.”</p>
<h2>2. US occupation</h2>
<p>By the 20th century, the United States was the foreign country exerting undue control over Haiti’s ailing economy. </p>
<p>It did so through a <a href="https://theconversation.com/gas-shortages-paralyze-haiti-triggering-protests-against-failing-economy-and-dysfunctional-politics-116337">combination of military might, political maneuvering and private investment</a>, writes Florida State University Professor Vincent Joos, who studies Haiti’s economy.</p>
<p>The American military occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934 and controlled its government. During that period, the U.S. designed Haiti’s economic and social policies to attract foreign investment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Marines march with palm trees in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229156/original/file-20180724-194146-g900a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229156/original/file-20180724-194146-g900a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229156/original/file-20180724-194146-g900a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229156/original/file-20180724-194146-g900a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229156/original/file-20180724-194146-g900a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229156/original/file-20180724-194146-g900a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229156/original/file-20180724-194146-g900a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Marines marching in Haiti in 1934.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bettman/Corbis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“In practice, that meant keeping Haitian wages, corporate taxes and tariffs low,” says Joos. “In exchange, the theory went, foreign investment would bring infrastructure development and jobs, benefiting all Haitians.”</p>
<p>Part of the Americans’ plan worked: American agricultural firms did begin profitably growing cash crops like coffee, bananas and sugar in Haiti in the 1910s and 1920s. Later, U.S. businesses and military agencies established rubber plantations and textile factories there.</p>
<p>But Haiti’s export-focused economic model hasn’t benefited its people.</p>
<p>“After decades of extremely business-friendly policies, three-quarters of Haitians still live on less than US$2.40 a day,” writes Joos.</p>
<h2>3. The earthquake</h2>
<p>On Jan. 12, 2010, a massive earthquake left Haiti in shambles – physically, economically and politically. Upwards of 300,000 people were killed and nearly 1.5 million of Haiti’s 10 million people instantly became homeless.</p>
<p>Researcher Joseph Jr Clormeus was in Port-au-Prince that day and survived the earthquake. Some of his colleagues “lost their lives while others were having limbs amputated to escape certain death under the rubble,” he recalls. “Outside, corpses littered the streets of the capital.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man walks over the remains of several homes where bodies of earthquake victims had yet to be pulled from the rubble." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410217/original/file-20210707-23-ewb8rz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scenes of rubble in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 29, 2010, a few weeks after the earthquake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/haitian-man-walks-over-the-remains-of-several-homes-where-news-photo/107430062?adppopup=true">Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Last year, on the 10th anniversary of the quake, Clormeus and co-authors Jean-François Savard and Emmanuel Sael <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decade-after-the-earthquake-haiti-still-struggles-to-recover-129670">wrote a story assessing Haiti’s stalled recovery</a>.</p>
<p>“Haiti hasn’t recovered from this disaster, despite billions of dollars being spent in the country,” they concluded. </p>
<p>One big problem, according to their analysis: Haiti’s government was weak after decades of dictatorship in the 20th century and a series of unstable democratic administrations in the 21st. </p>
<p>Clormeus, Savard and Sael also blame the international-led disaster recovery effort for Haiti’s continued struggles. </p>
<p>After the earthquake, hundreds of foreign aid agencies and international organizations like the Red Cross flooded into Haiti, intending to help. But “there was no coordination in the interventions of friendly countries in order to optimize the efforts on behalf of the victims,” write Clormeus, Savard and Sael. </p>
<p>The international community “failed to meet a humanitarian challenge of such magnitude.”</p>
<h2>4. Austerity and foreign influence</h2>
<p>The international community has also failed in its efforts to alleviate the privation and struggle of the Haitian people. The average income is $5 a day, and many people live on much less.</p>
<p>Haiti’s government, likewise, remains cash-strapped. It is frequently unable to provide basic services like trash collection or to hold timely elections.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/haitis-deadly-riots-fueled-by-anger-over-decades-of-austerity-and-foreign-interference-100209">The country “runs on borrowed funds,”</a> says Florida State’s Vincent Joos. </p>
<p>Loans sometimes fund 20% of Haiti’s national budget. That gives lending institutions like the International Monetary Fund outsized influence on domestic policies. In 2018, deadly protests erupted over gas prices after Haiti’s creditors recommended ending petroleum subsidies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters block a street with debris." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229154/original/file-20180724-194149-1gbrp1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229154/original/file-20180724-194149-1gbrp1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229154/original/file-20180724-194149-1gbrp1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229154/original/file-20180724-194149-1gbrp1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229154/original/file-20180724-194149-1gbrp1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229154/original/file-20180724-194149-1gbrp1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229154/original/file-20180724-194149-1gbrp1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters set up roadblocks to disrupt traffic and commerce along key streets in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The International Monetary Fund’s “de facto control over the economy” of Haiti dates back decades – as do popular uprisings against it, says Joos. </p>
<h2>5. Crisis under Moïse</h2>
<p>Long-standing discontent with Haiti’s unequal economy and its ineffective government grew during President Jovenel Moïse’s 4 ½-year term. </p>
<p>Moïse’s killing followed months of sustained protests demanding his resignation after he refused to vacate the presidency, which was meant to end in February. Moïse said he planned to modify the Haitian constitution to allow presidents to run for reelection, potentially enabling him to stay in office even longer. </p>
<p>“Moïse had been ruling by decree,” Tamanisha John, a Caribbean studies scholar at Florida International University, explained <a href="https://theconversation.com/slain-haitian-president-faced-calls-for-resignation-sustained-mass-protests-before-killing-164131">after the president’s assassination</a>. “He effectively shuttered the Haitian legislature by refusing to hold parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2020 and summarily dismissed all of the country’s elected mayors in July 2020, when their terms expired.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="President Moïse in a black suit, raising his hands in front of an orange backdrop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410188/original/file-20210707-17-1kr806h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C29%2C4947%2C3293&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410188/original/file-20210707-17-1kr806h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410188/original/file-20210707-17-1kr806h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410188/original/file-20210707-17-1kr806h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410188/original/file-20210707-17-1kr806h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410188/original/file-20210707-17-1kr806h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410188/original/file-20210707-17-1kr806h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moïse at the 2018 Summit of The Americas in Lima, Peru. He was assassinated on July 7, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-of-haiti-jovenel-moise-greets-the-press-during-news-photo/946589254?adppopup=true">Manuel Medir/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moïse – the chosen successor of Haiti’s unpopular last president, Michel Martelly – lost the trust of the Haitian people early, according to John. In 2017, the first year of his administration, Moïse was implicated in an embezzlement scandal in which at least $700,000 of public money was allegedly funneled into the banana business he owned.</p>
<p>Though Moïse is dead, his party retains power. Prime Minister Claude Joseph, appointed by Moïse on an interim basis in April after the <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/who-claude-joseph-haiti-pm-steps-after-presidents-assassination-3246445">sitting prime minister resigned</a>, controls Haiti for now. The country, he says, is in a “state of siege.”</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to more accurately characterize Moïse’s proposed change to the Haitian Constitution.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Expert background on Haiti, where President Jovenel Moïse’s July 7 killing is the latest in the Caribbean nation’s long list of struggles.Catesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263152019-11-15T13:28:36Z2019-11-15T13:28:36ZHaiti protests summon spirit of the Haitian Revolution to condemn a president tainted by scandal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301791/original/file-20191114-26202-1yymhsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4510%2C2984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jean Marcellis Destine, dressed as Haitian independence hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines, heads to a protest against President Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 4, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Haiti-Protests/11d660c323c64a7fa26d140e9d3d9acb/4/0">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A radical, unlikely figure has emerged as the icon of Haiti’s months-long protests against President Jovenel Moïse, who stands <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article231122978.html">accused of embezzling millions in public funds</a>.</p>
<p>That figure is <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-haitis-founding-father-whose-black-revolution-was-too-radical-for-thomas-jefferson-101963">Jean-Jacques Dessalines</a>, the black Haitian revolutionary who defeated the French to free Haiti from colonial rule in 1804. By summoning Dessalines, Haitian protesters implicitly contrast the achievements of that revolution – <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-haitis-founding-father-whose-black-revolution-was-too-radical-for-thomas-jefferson-101963">freedom, universal citizenship and racial equality</a> – with the disappointments of the Moïse government.</p>
<p>Dessalines wrote a radical <a href="https://haitidoi.com/constitutions/1805-2/">constitution</a> that eliminated racial hierarchy, established equality before the law and instituted freedom of religion in Haiti.</p>
<p>One of Haiti’s opposition political parties is called “<a href="https://ageofrevolutions.com/2016/02/15/the-2015-16-haitian-elections-politicizing-dessalines-and-the-memory-of-the-haitian-revolution/">Pitit Dessalines</a>” – Children of Dessalines. </p>
<p>When demonstrations began last year, simple stenciled images of Dessalines wearing a military hat and holding a protest sign appeared on walls across the capital. This year, at several marches, men in revolutionary-era garb have ridden the streets of Port-au-Prince on horseback. They were waving Dessalines’ red-and-black version of the Haitian flag inscribed with the words “Viv Lib ou Mouri” – “Live Free or Die.”</p>
<h2>A commitment to equality</h2>
<p>I am writing a biography of Dessalines, who has long been overshadowed outside of Haiti by the formerly enslaved revolutionary leader <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/loverture-toussaint-1743-1803/">Toussaint Louverture</a>, who is often heralded as Haiti’s founding father despite dying before independence.</p>
<p>My research on the <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469625621/haitian-connections-in-the-atlantic-world/">diplomacy and state-building practices</a> of Dessalines, conducted using archives from the Caribbean, North America and Europe, shows the Americas’ first black head of state to be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-haitis-founding-father-whose-black-revolution-was-too-radical-for-thomas-jefferson-101963">groundbreaking enlightenment thinker and revolutionary leader</a>.</p>
<p>At the time of his birth, around 1758, Haiti – then a French Caribbean slavery-based colony called <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674018266&content=reviews">Saint-Domingue</a> – was the most lucrative colony in the world. By the time of Dessalines’ 1806 assassination, it was the Americas’ first sovereign abolitionist state. </p>
<p>Though European and American powers refused to recognize the young nation, Dessalines steadfastly rebuffed any concession to world powers that might undermine Haiti’s hard-won independence. </p>
<p>In early 1804, Dessalines even <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.3.0583?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">declined</a> to sign a treaty with the British governor of Jamaica that would have given Haiti diplomatic recognition. The reason: It would have limited Haitian sea travel and allowed the British to occupy a strategic fort. </p>
<p>A few months before, when Dessalines discovered that white Frenchmen were plotting to overthrow his government, he <a href="http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/history/earlyhaiti/1805-const.htm">ordered the execution</a> of all remaining French people in Haiti. Some women and children were targeted in these public executions. </p>
<p>White world leaders took note of Dessalines’ gruesome retaliation against the French, which may have contributed to Haiti’s <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469625621/haitian-connections-in-the-atlantic-world/">diplomatic isolation</a> in the early 19th century. Haiti’s independence would go unrecognized until 1825, when France <a href="http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/part04-slide06.html">finally conceded</a> that it had lost the war. </p>
<p>To maintain Haitian autonomy, Dessalines’ constitution also declared that only <a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/4876">Haitian citizens</a> and the Haitian government could own land and property in Haiti. </p>
<p>But he also <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469625621/haitian-connections-in-the-atlantic-world/">established a policy of offering refuge</a> in Haiti for the downtrodden and oppressed of the Americas. In the decades to come, Haiti would welcome <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-doesnt-understand-haiti-immigration-or-american-history-87982">13,000 African Americans who fled racial discrimination in the southern U.S.</a> and many <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/117/1/40/46487">others fleeing slavery in the Caribbean islands</a>.</p>
<p>Dessalines is the only Haitian revolutionary to have been incorporated into the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-haitian-voodoo-119621">Haitian religion</a> as a spirit, named <a href="https://romantic-circles.org/praxis/circulations/HTML/praxis.2011.twa.html">Ogou Desalin</a>. Among Haitian spirits, the Ogou are known as warriors. Ogou Desalin is the warrior who defends liberty.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301794/original/file-20191114-26243-1anftgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An anti-government protest called by the artist community in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 20, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Haiti-Political-Crisis/56d84ed9c34042f49656e83fb2f9e14b/64/0">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wanted: government accountability</h2>
<p>This legacy underpins Haitians’ desire for a new kind of independence – an existence free of predatory leaders and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/11/haiti-and-the-failed-promise-of-us-aid">reliance</a> on <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-haiti-climate-aid-comes-with-strings-attached-108652">international aid that comes with strings attached</a>. </p>
<p>After the 2010 earthquake, many Haitians hoped that the devastation would <a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/78780/agriculture-energie-sante-priorites-des-usa-pour-reconstruire-haiti">inspire positive change</a>. Instead, the influx of foreign aid and global investment in Haiti opened the door for the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/can-haitis-corrupt-president-hold-on-to-power/">corruption</a> that has tainted Haiti’s last two leaders.</p>
<p>Moïse’s predecessor, Michel Martelly, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/world/americas/michel-martelly-haitis-president-departs-without-a-successor.html">departed office amid scandal</a> in February 2016 without a successor in place, leaving the country with a provisional government. Moïse, a businessman who was Martelly’s chosen successor, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38140316">became president in February 2017</a> with 56% of the vote. </p>
<p>To deter the fraud that had marred recent presidential elections in Haiti, <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article93333377.html">monitors from the Organization of American States</a> supervised the vote. But many Haitians still doubted that Moise’s victory was <a href="https://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2016/12/2016-12-30-nk-haiti-electoral-process-cl.html">legitimate</a>. </p>
<p>By late 2017, Haitians had learned that <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article231122978.html">Moïse was implicated</a> in an embezzlement scheme involving <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article184740783.html">US$2 billion</a> meant to finance infrastructure development in the country. The pillaged funds came from an international organization called <a href="https://caricom.org/projects/detail/petrocaribe">PetroCaribe</a>, which sells Venezuelan gas and oil to Caribbean countries at reduced cost to free up money for development. Under Martelly and Moïse, Haiti’s extra money seems to have disappeared.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, <a href="https://theconversation.com/latin-america-shuts-out-desperate-venezuelans-but-colombias-border-remains-open-for-now-123307">Venezuela’s own political and economic crisis</a> has rendered the PetroCaribe program unable to meet Haiti’s oil and gas needs, creating an acute gas shortage. In mid-2018, Haiti’s government <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article214722915.html">raised the cost of gas</a> by 38%.</p>
<p>Saying they are suffering the direct consequences of government corruption, angry Haitians <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/11/731640235/protesters-demand-resignation-of-haitian-president-over-corruption-allegations">have demanded Moïse’s resignation</a>. The president, who has largely retreated from the public eye, <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article235443547.html">refuses</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C39%2C2044%2C1168&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C39%2C2044%2C1168&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299916/original/file-20191101-88428-dwxy91.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graffiti in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, shows the revolutionary hero Jean-Jaques Dessalines holding a sign reading, ‘Where is the PetroCaribe Money?’ November 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nathan Dize</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legacies of imperialism</h2>
<p>Dessalines’ track record as a leader <a href="https://ageofrevolutions.com/2016/02/15/the-2015-16-haitian-elections-politicizing-dessalines-and-the-memory-of-the-haitian-revolution/">was not perfect</a>, either. </p>
<p>Shortly after he overthrew French rule, Dessalines declared himself emperor of Haiti and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03585522.1984.10408024">revived the plantation system</a> that revolutionaries had just burned to the ground. Field workers were called “cultivateurs,” and they received some pay or a share of their crop. However, they were bound to a specific plantation. </p>
<p>This form of coerced labor resembled the U.S. sharecropping system and others <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/problem-freedom">that arose across the Americas</a> after slavery ended. </p>
<p>Two centuries after his assassination in 1806, some still consider Dessalines a barbarous <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo16724367.html">despot</a>. To others, he is an uncompromising <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/fondateur-devant-lhistoire/oclc/1892049">freedom fighter</a>. </p>
<p>Both of these conflicting portrayals reduce Dessalines to a one-dimensional character. The protesters inspired by his legacy aren’t necessarily ignoring Dessalines’ shortcomings. Instead, they are championing his unwavering determination to rid the country of foreign rule so that Haitians could live “<a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C12756259">by ourselves and for ourselves</a>.”</p>
<p>[ <em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Gaffield has received funding from the American Council of Learned Societies. </span></em></p>Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who freed Haiti from French colonial rule in 1804, is revered as a spirit in the Haitian religion. Now he’s become an icon of the uprising against President Jovanel Moïse.Julia Gaffield, Associate Professor of History, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1138082019-05-21T11:36:00Z2019-05-21T11:36:00ZHate heaped on black heroines of the French Resistance would look familiar to AOC and Rashida Tlaib<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273861/original/file-20190510-183112-1mwdf1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When women of color in government work together, it often helps their chances of legislative success. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/New-Congress/d54d663d9f4f40219cf02af9a93784ec/6/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women of color who hold public office in Europe and the United States frequently attract intense scrutiny. </p>
<p>In the United States, the outspoken U.S. Representatives <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/01/24/hardball_panel_why_is_the_right_so_obsessed_with_alexandria_ocasio-cortez.html">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/us/politics/ilhan-omar-rashida-tlaib-israel.html">Rashida Tlaib</a> and <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/first-somali-american-congresswoman-ignites-controversy-in-diverse-minneapolis/4854761.html">Ilhan Omar</a> have seen frequent attacks in the media by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/trump-s-9-11-tweet-on-rep-ilhan-omar-draws-condemnation-from-democrats-1491120707941">critics</a> who portray them as unpatriotic, not American enough.</p>
<p>Government ministers across the Atlantic have been subjected to similar aggression. </p>
<p>Both former French Minister of Justice <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/christiane-taubira-french-guiana">Christiane Taubira</a>, the first black woman to <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/taubira-christiane-taubira-delannon-christiane-1952/">hold this high office</a>, and European Parliament member Cécile Kyenge – Italy’s first black government minister – have been satirized with <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20131113-france-racism-black-minister-taubira-monkey-banana-magazine-cover">offensive images</a>, called racist names and told, in short, that they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/29/italys-first-black-minister-racist-abuse-discrimination">don’t belong in European politics</a>.</p>
<p>My historical <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BWpDGiAAAAAJ&hl=en">research on race and gender</a> shows that such attacks started well before the current era. In France, even black women who fought Nazis during World War II were accused of not being French enough when, later, they entered politics.</p>
<h2>Redefining patriotism</h2>
<p>Black French women played important and often overlooked roles in the French Resistance, the <a href="https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=153">underground movement</a> that fought Hitler’s regime after France surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940. They served as spies, nurses and clandestine couriers.</p>
<p>My forthcoming book uncovers the political struggles of France’s first two black female senators, Eugénie Éboué-Tell and Jane Vialle, after they took their fight for equality into government. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273863/original/file-20190510-183077-1165ox0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eugenie Éboué-Tell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.senat.fr/senateur-4eme-republique/eboue_tell_eugenie0410r4.html">French Senate</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5809190/eugenie_ebouetell_in_nynew_york_age/">Eugénie Éboué-Tell</a> was the <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/inside-the-brutal-french-guiana-prison-that-inspired-papillon">French Guyana</a>-born wife of a high-ranking colonial administrator in Africa. In 1939, Éboué-Tell joined the women’s auxiliary corps as a nurse in Central Africa’s fledgling Resistance army. </p>
<p>Given her husband’s prominence, Éboué-Tell’s military service brought visibility to the African origins of the French Resistance movement – and to her own dissidence. In 1940, Éboué-Tell was sentenced to death in absentia for joining the Resistance by France’s Vichy government, which was <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/vichy-government-france-world-war-ii-willingly-collaborated-nazis-180967160/">by then collaborating with the Nazis</a>. </p>
<p>After the Allied victory, Éboué-Tell went from death sentence to being awarded the French <a href="https://www.senat.fr/evenement/archives/D25/deco.html">medal of honor</a> by the government.</p>
<p>In 1945 she was elected to the French National Assembly and a year later to the Senate. There she met another black woman who had also played an important role in the French Resistance, <a href="https://upclosed.com/people/jane-vialle/">Jane Vialle</a>. </p>
<h2>Challenging French oppression from within</h2>
<p>Vialle, born in 1906 in the Republic of the Congo, moved to Paris with her father at the age of seven. She was working as a journalist when World War II broke out. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273862/original/file-20190510-183083-1ycj2of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jane Vialle, a reporter turned spy turned French senator.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.senat.fr/senateur-4eme-republique/vialle_jane0151r4.html">French Senate</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vialle left Paris and became a clandestine agent for <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/01/albert-camus-edited-the-french-resistance-newspaper-combat.html">Combat</a>, one of the three major Resistance movements in the south of France. As a spy, Vialle gathered intelligence on the movement of Nazi troops across Europe. </p>
<p>She was arrested in January 1943 and charged with treason. In her trial records, the Vichy French prosecutor said that Vialle had so expertly coded her data that, when her house was raided, police could not crack her code.</p>
<p>Vialle was sent to a concentration camp and then a <a href="https://womenintheworld.com/2018/05/04/sentenced-to-prison-mothers-bring-their-babies-to-live-with-them-behind-bars/">women’s prison in Marseille</a>. The historical records I located differ on how she survived incarceration: Either she escaped or she was released. </p>
<p>Much of black women’s history during World War II is similarly ambiguous. Their stories of resistance remain untold, still shrouded in mystery.</p>
<p>Either way, Vialle survived the war. She was elected to the French Senate in 1947. </p>
<h2>Continuing the resistance after World War II</h2>
<p>Following electoral campaigns that emphasized their role in the Resistance, Éboué-Tell and Vialle were initially hailed in France as war heroes.</p>
<p>They used the power of their new Senate seats to challenge another kind of oppression in France: colonialism. </p>
<p>In 1947 France was still a global empire. It controlled dozens of colonies and territories in the Caribbean, South America and across Africa.</p>
<p>France’s deployment of troops to its African colonies during World War II caused a rise in the number of children born of African mothers and white French soldiers. As scholars <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo9637538.html">Emmanuelle Saada</a> and <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208198.001.0001/acprof-9780198208198">Owen White</a> have documented, French colonial policy was to sequester these children in government orphanages, where they received a limited education and could be forced into child labor.</p>
<p>Vialle and Éboué-Tell thought these children, too, deserved liberation. </p>
<p>In 1947, they collaborated on legislation that would give these children the same rights as those born in mainland France. Among other benefits, it would allow them to conduct a paternity search and could require absentee French fathers to pay child support. </p>
<p>Fellow lawmakers accused Vialle and Éboué-Tell of being divisive for highlighting racial inequality. But after a fierce four-year battle, the landmark legislation passed. </p>
<h2>Learning from history</h2>
<p>I find in Éboué-Tell’s and Vialle’s stories relevant parallels to politics today. </p>
<p>These black French women knew from deeply personal experience that their country was both heroic and villainous, a place of freedom and atrocity – at once a symbol of liberation from Nazism and a colonial oppressor. </p>
<p>As outsiders who’d worked their way into the center of power, they broadened narrow ideas of who was authentically “French.” They expanded more citizenship rights to people who, like them, came from the colonies.</p>
<p>I can see today’s female politicians of color following their lead, using their political power to advocate for the most marginalized in society. </p>
<p>As a member of Parliament, France’s Christiane Taubira spearheaded 2001 legislation that recognized the Atlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity. In 2016, she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/27/french-justice-minister-christiane-taubira-resigns">resigned</a> as minister of justice in opposition to new anti-terror laws targeting French citizens of immigrant origin.</p>
<p>Now another black French woman, National Assembly member Danièle Obono, is pushing legislation to <a href="http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/deputes/fiche/OMC_PA721960">protect children and working mothers</a>.</p>
<p>U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has <a href="https://ocasio2018.com/issues">done the same in the United States</a>. Ilhan Omar has signed onto the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2415/cosponsors">Dignity for Detained Immigrants bill</a>, which would better protect immigrants detained by the Department of Homeland Security. </p>
<p>And, like French pioneers Éboué-Tell and Vialle, these “outsider” politicians are still <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/22/jayapal-freshmen-dems-1231513">working together</a> to effect change from within the government.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annette Joseph-Gabriel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women of color in public office often face great scrutiny and hostility. New research shows how France’s first black female senators used their experience fighting Nazis to pass landmark legislation.Annette Joseph-Gabriel, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1100762019-04-01T10:39:03Z2019-04-01T10:39:03ZAs its ruling dynasty withers, Gabon – a US ally and guardian of French influence in Africa – ponders its future<p>The fragility of one of the world’s longest-lasting political dynasties was exposed when the military attempted a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gabon-coup/gabon-thwarts-military-coup-attempt-in-presidents-absence-idUSKCN1P10FE">coup in Gabon in January</a>.</p>
<p>The coup, orchestrated by junior members of Gabon’s military, failed to unseat Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has run the central African country since the late 1960s. And Gabon’s next presidential election isn’t until the summer of 2023. </p>
<p>Bongo’s time in office may run out sooner. </p>
<p>The 60-year-old strongman has been effectively unable to rule since suffering <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKCN1N31VY-OZATP">an apparent stroke</a> in October 2018, during Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative – often called “Davos in the desert.” </p>
<p>His evident frailty in recent TV appearances, coupled with the failed coup and lack of an obvious heir, has created a strong national sentiment that Gabon’s five-decade Bongo dynasty is on its last legs.</p>
<h2>One of France’s last neocolonial outposts in Africa</h2>
<p>Political upheaval is rare in Gabon, a diminutive central African nation about the size of the state of Colorado, with a population of <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/gabon/overview">2 million</a> and a lucrative oil industry. </p>
<p>Except for a short-lived military coup in 1964, Gabon has been regarded as a bastion of stability in <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/#!/conflict/violence-in-the-central-african-republic">troubled central Africa</a>, <a href="http://ut.academia.edu/GYLDASOFOULHASTOTHAMOT">where my research is focused</a>. Oil wealth and the Bongo dynasty’s French backing has contributed to Gabon’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-corrupt-nepotist-who-ruled-gabon-for-40-years-1700197.html">security</a>, and in recent years Bongo has used this stability to turn Gabon into a key <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/05/meet-ali-bongo-ondimba-obamas-man-in-africa/">U.S. ally</a> in the region.</p>
<p>But stability is not the same as democracy. </p>
<p>Since winning independence from France, in 1960, Gabon has had just three presidents. The first was Léon M’ba, who ruled from independence until 1967. The current president’s father – Omar Bongo Ondimba – assumed power <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/524984?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents">after M'ba died</a>. </p>
<p>Omar Bongo went on to rule Gabon with an iron fist for 42 years. To stay in power, he oversaw changes that ensured that the country’s nascent electoral system never became <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-politique-africaine-2009-2-page-126.htm">independent, free or fair</a>. </p>
<p>During his rule, the elder Bongo helped to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/713675627?casa_token=J8_PMc81kmsAAAAA:74wMxqVYPCQvFxZdf3ttPvD9H7lRvVeu3TzuD65L8EZST9WXaMpw_TH3LrXAlyI78DGWFS_jx_COkQ">keep French political influence</a> and <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/africa/gb-forrel-fr.htm">military might</a> alive in Africa by signing several mutual defense treaties with France. His policies benefited the “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0963948052000341196">Françafrique</a>” – a now-<a href="https://newafricanmagazine.com/opinions/francafrique-a-brief-history-of-a-scandalous-word/">disparaged term</a> describing France’s “special” relationship with its former colonies on the continent, which has included supporting dictators who protect its economic interests.</p>
<p>Omar Bongo ensured that Gabon remained a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/161015?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">neocolonial enclave</a>,” as anthropologist Michael Reed wrote in 1987 in the Journal of Modern African Studies. </p>
<p>“Gabon’s very identity is inseparable from France,” Reed argued, “and the latter’s continued claim to ‘major power’ status, in which Africa is crucial, requires Gabon’s assistance.” </p>
<p>President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who assumed power after his father died in 2009 – in yet another election marred by <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/gabon">irregularities</a> – inherited his father’s fealty to France. </p>
<p>Gabon still routinely aligns itself with French interests in Africa. During Libya’s 2011 political upheaval, for example, Ali Bongo <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-07-01/african-union-refuses-arrest-gaddafi">broke with the African Union</a> and called for the embattled President Muammar Gaddafi <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/11/us-think-tank-hails-african-leader-accused-of-stealing-an-electi/">to step down</a>. France and other Western powers sought to <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20110430-libya-muammar-gaddafi-offers-ceasefire-refuses-to-leave">dislodge the authoritarian Gaddafi</a>, while African nations supported Gaddafi, promoting “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589001.2012.761463?src=recsys&journalCode=cjca20">African solutions to African problems</a>.”</p>
<h2>A stable non-democracy</h2>
<p>The rise of Ali Bongo – who was minister of defense during the latter part of his father’s reign – was contentious even within his own Gabonese Democratic Party.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266557/original/file-20190329-70999-1vckduc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gabon is an island of peace in the often unsettled central Africa region.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bongo was forcefully challenged by a senior former party member in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/gabon-court-rules-president-ali-bongo-rightful-winner-of-september-election">2016 presidential election</a>, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/who-jean-ping-gabons-presidential-challenger-494551">Jean Ping</a>. Boosted by the failure of Bongo’s reform agenda to <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gabon-politics-insight/gabons-bongo-struggles-to-transform-african-oil-republic-idUKKBN0ET1W720140618">transform Gabon into an emerging economy</a>, Ping almost convinced the Gabonese people that the Bongo dynasty had to go.</p>
<p>In the end, Bongo beat <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/who-jean-ping-gabons-presidential-challenger-494551">Ping</a>, a former head of the African Union Commission, by fewer than 6,000 votes, with 50.66 percent of the vote. Ping, along with many local and foreign observers, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gabon-election-election-idUSKCN11C112">considers the results of that race</a> fraudulent.</p>
<p>The 2016 presidential election was damaging for the Bongo dynasty. It was the first time that the opposition to the Bongo family coalesced around a single, credible candidacy. </p>
<p>Ever since then, once peaceful Gabon has experienced <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2019/01/09/a-libreville-un-putsch-rate-revelateur-du-malaise-gabonais_5406573_3212.html">political crises</a>. Ping’s party <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/gabon-votes-for-first-time-since-violence-marred-2016-election-20181006-2">boycotted last year’s municipal elections</a>, and his half of the electorate considers Bongo an illegitimate president. </p>
<h2>Rich and poor</h2>
<p>Gabon has also been in an <a href="https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/gaulme_crisis_oil_producing_countries_gabon_congo_2018.pdf">economic and fiscal crisis</a> since 2014. </p>
<p>Between 2014 and 2016, government revenues decreased substantially due to the <a href="http://africa-me.com/gabon-economic-crisis-government-fuels-investor-mistrust-expropriation-veolia-seeg/">fall of global oil prices</a>. Last year, the International Monetary Fund agreed to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/gabon-economy-imf/gabons-economy-to-recover-in-2018-needs-progress-on-reforms-imf-says-idUSL8N1TS374">bail out Gabon’s government in exchange for</a> structural reforms, including a <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20180626-gouvernement-gabonais-reduire-train-vie-etat">three-year hiring freeze in the public sector</a>.</p>
<p>Inequality is also <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/income-gini-coefficient">very high</a> in Gabon. Historically, its oil wealth <a href="http://www.ga.undp.org/content/gabon/fr/home/countryinfo/">has not financially benefited most of its people</a>, who remain quite poor.</p>
<p>Gabon places <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/data">110 out of 189 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index</a>, which assesses longevity, education levels, poverty, social equality, maternal death and other measures of well-being. That is higher than <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/data">immediate neighbors like Cameroon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea</a>, but lower than expected for a middle-income country whose government runs on oil money.</p>
<p>The African island of <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mauritius/overview">Mauritius</a>, for instance, whose gross domestic product is similar to Gabon’s – which was <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/?locations=GA-MU">US$15 billion in 2017</a> – fares far better. It ranks 65th worldwide on the UN’s human development index. </p>
<h2>A future yet to be written</h2>
<p>Surveys show that 87 percent of Gabonese feel that the country is <a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org/press/despite-overwhelming-discontent-gabonese-want-democracy-and-reject-military-rule-survey-shows">headed in the wrong direction</a>. They blame Ali Bongo for that, though 71 percent reject any attempt to install a military dictatorship.</p>
<p>Despite attempts by the Gabonese Democratic Party to reassure the public that Bongo’s health is improving, it is <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/gabonNews/idAFL5N20K387">unclear if he will ever recover enough to again lead Gabon</a>. </p>
<p>For now, an amendment of the constitution by Gabon’s constitutional court in November 2018 has ensured that the president remains – at least nominally – <a href="http://constitutionnet.org/news/gabon-constitutional-court-amends-constitution-address-presidents-absence">in charge</a> while recovering from the stroke.</p>
<p>When Bongo dies or is rendered incapacitated – a scenario that, in my assessment, is already well underway – the Bongo dynasty will end.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gyldas A. Ofoulhast-Othamot is not affiliated with any political organization, but he was a supporter of Jean Ping in Gabon's 2016 presidential election.</span></em></p>Gabon’s strongman president, Ali Bongo, is barely clinging to power after contested elections, a stroke and a coup attempt. The Bongo family has run this stable central African nation for 52 years.Gyldas A. Ofoulhast-Othamot, Adjunct professor, Political Science and International Studies, University of TampaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1115602019-03-05T11:36:49Z2019-03-05T11:36:49ZLe mariage burlesque: Carnival cross-dressing in the French Caribbean<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261880/original/file-20190304-110137-1jefp1a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C56%2C2516%2C1650&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The mariage burlesque of the Plastic System Band carnival group in Lamentin,
Martinique, 2012.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte Hammond</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anyone in the French Caribbean islands of Martinique or Guadeloupe during the carnival festivities will witness a unique and wonderfully subversive tradition: <em>le mariage burlesque</em>.</p>
<p>As a legacy of the refusal to assimilate into a French model of marriage and family, <em>le mariage burlesque</em> parodies the idealised fiction of a heterosexual nuclear family unit. Each year on lundi gras (the first Monday of the carnival) men and women perform each other’s conjugal role by cross-dressing as their gendered other. So the man masquerades as the (often pregnant) wife and – to a lesser extent – the woman dresses and performs as the husband. The happy couple is followed by a wedding procession and are “married” by a registrar and a priest along the carnival route.</p>
<p>The late Martinican theorist <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KlJ7AAAAMAAJ&q=glissant+discours+antillais&dq=glissant+discours+antillais&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfqIaToK_gAhXS8OAKHYXlBeoQ6AEIKDAA">Édouard Glissant</a> described the tradition as a critique of the family structure imposed by the colonising French republic. He wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is an occasion in Martinique in which men and women both agree to give a performance of their relationship. This is the tradition of the burlesque marriage during carnival, a critique of family structure. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In recent years there have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/liberte-egalite-fraternite-france-and-the-gay-marriage-debate-14852">debates</a> on the traditional role of family in France. A universalist notion prevails – the model of family promoted by the French Republic is made up of a heterosexual couple who live together, whether married or not, with children born of (or adopted by) the two parents. </p>
<p>Controversy around alternative forms of conjugal union, including legislation to enable <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/debats/2018/04/23/le-mariage-pour-tous-et-ses-ennemis_1645281">same-sex marriage</a>, gay adoption and <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/3566">surrogacy</a>, have prompted fierce debates on the continued relevance of this traditional model. And, given that recent changes in legislation apply to France’s overseas territories, these debates have questioned the continued relevance of the French values of marriage and family in Guadeloupe and Martinique.</p>
<h2>Family after slavery</h2>
<p>French colonial discourse <a href="https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://scholar.google.co.uk/&httpsredir=1&article=3330&context=cq">related marriage to “civilisation”</a>. According to this racist logic, the African – who was considered subordinate – was unsuited to marriage. In the French Caribbean, unions between enslaved men and women of the same plantation were encouraged as they would produce another generation of slaves for the profit of the owner. Marriage between slaves (with the permission of their master) <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zKXdXLKyIR4C&pg=PA194&dq=soeurs+de+solitude&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW7brhzKfgAhW7VRUIHXeLAk0Q6AEINzAC#v=onepage&q=soeurs%20de%20solitude&f=false">became legal from 1664</a> – but, in reality, the plantation system constrained the development of strong family units which would often be broken up when slaves were sold on to other plantations. This tended to disrupt the pure parent-child line of descendance or “filiation” promoted by the French state.</p>
<p>Following the abolition of slavery in 1848, French policies of assimilation (into <em>la grande famille nationale</em>) reinforced a desire for official marriage among its “daughters”, or <em>les filles</em>, as Guadeloupe and Martinique were disparagingly known. The extended family, in which grandparents, aunts, nannies and godparents are as likely to raise children as mothers, therefore came to signify not only resistance to a dominant social order of family imposed by slave owners, but also its imposition on French Caribbean territories during the aftermath of slavery. </p>
<p>In 1946, the islands voted to become overseas <em>départements</em>, granting them a distinct political status in relation to mainland France that promised full integration into the French Republic. However, this status has resulted in many <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HdtoCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=yarimar+bonilla&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_4fbpwangAhWqQRUIHVkrDH0Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=yarimar%20bonilla&f=false">social and economic disparities</a> including severe unemployment, high cost of living and persistent racial discrimination.</p>
<p>As researchers in the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YPDHXd0fOroC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Interrogating+Caribbean+Masculinities:&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAi4_71afgAhUxtXEKHVpYAJYQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Interrogating%20Caribbean%20Masculinities%3A&f=false">social sciences have shown</a>, family in this context – as the product of both African kinship traditions and its restructure during slavery – did not conform neatly to the model of family promoted by the French Republic.</p>
<p>Traditionally, <em>le mariage burlesque</em> was a ritual (with both European and African roots) to promote the birth of new unions during the festival period in the run up to Lent. Men would often adopt women’s roles during carnival through male-to-female cross-dressing. Today some <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UFMpAAAAYAAJ&q=david+ab+murray+opacity&dq=david+ab+murray+opacity&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjq5bzn2KfgAhWZSxUIHc4aCO4Q6AEIKDAA">gender studies scholars</a> have argued that cross-dressing in the context of Caribbean carnivals merely reaffirms gender difference and masculine domination. </p>
<p>Yet in this context, where Eurocentric understandings of sexuality and gender are so often cut and pasted without attention to local histories and traditions, <em>le mariage burlesque</em> represents the contradiction imposed on French Caribbean citizens who continue to uphold a European (and heterosexual) model of marriage and family as the norm despite the co-existence of alternative family structures. </p>
<p>The “lesser” presence of women during <em>le mariage burlesque</em> has been addressed directly in the work of Martinique-based artists Annabel Guérédrat and Henri Tauliaut. In 2016 Guérédrat and Tauliaut performed the Marcel Duchamp-inspired <em>La Mariée mise à nu par son célibataire même</em> (The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelor) during the <em>mariage burlesque</em> parade of Fort-de-France, Martinique.</p>
<p>Guérédrat, dressed as a dominatrix bride in white and cradling a black dildo, sheds an oversized wedding veil and leads Tauliaut, in full gimp mask and black gown, along the carnival route. This commanding female performance subverts normative gender relations in a Martinican society which remains largely macho and a carnival space where male-authored representations of women dominate.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0E2-r4nOQjc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The tableaux concludes with the couple departing on a boat against a tropical Caribbean landscape in the background. This parody of tourist brochure clichés that depict the Caribbean as a honeymoon paradise destination evokes the inequities of a global tourism industry that often replicates an uneven master/slave dynamic. </p>
<p>Each year carnival in Guadeloupe and Martinique attracts tourists from France and the rest of the world who come to enjoy this vibrant theatre of the street. For both visitors and locals the <em>mariage burlesque</em> masquerade ensures a collective memory of the cultural and political transvestism of the overseas departments, dressed up to resemble France and its universalist values. It is an embodied reminder of the enduring one-sided marriage between the islands and France.</p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249588/original/file-20181210-76968-jfryp4.png?h=128">
<div>
<header>Charlotte Hammond is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/43064/">Entangled Otherness: Cross-gender Fabrications in the Francophone Caribbean</a></p>
<footer>Liverpool University Press provides funding as a content partner of The Conversation UK</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte Hammond received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to carry out this research. </span></em></p>The annual Carnival rituals subvert traditional French notions of family and sexuality.Charlotte Hammond, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, School of Modern Languages, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1019632018-08-30T10:49:16Z2018-08-30T10:49:16ZMeet Haiti’s founding father, whose black revolution was too radical for Thomas Jefferson<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233722/original/file-20180827-75993-1psc3m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue in Port-au-Pirnce honors Jean-Jacques Dessalines' legacy as a Haitian revolutionary. Now, a renamed Brooklyn street does, too.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Crowds cheered as local lawmakers on August 18 unveiled a street sign showing that Rogers Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/nyregion/little-haiti-dessalines-boulevard.html">would now be called Jean-Jacques Dessalines Boulevard</a>, after a Haitian slave turned revolutionary general. </p>
<p>When Dessalines declared Haiti’s independence from France in 1804 after a 13-year <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Avengers_of_the_New_World.html?id=x0FCX4Y8ufoC">slave uprising and civil war</a>, he became the Americas’ first black head of state. </p>
<p>Supporting the French colonial perspective, leaders across the Americas and Europe <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0144039X.2016.1196996">immediately demonized</a> Dessalines. Even in the United States, itself newly independent from Britain, newspapers <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15562.html">recounted horrific stories</a> of the final years of the Haitian Revolution, a war for independence that took the lives of some <a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Slaves-Who-Defeated-Napoleon,5154.aspx">50,000 French soldiers</a> and over <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623528.2013.789181">100,000 black and mixed-race Haitians</a>.</p>
<p>For more than two centuries, Dessalines was <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1440-the-american-crucible">memorialized</a> as a ruthless brute. </p>
<p>Now, say residents of Brooklyn’s “<a href="http://observer.com/2018/05/little-haiti-brooklyn-new-york-city/">Little Haiti</a>” – the blocks around Rogers Avenue, home to some <a href="https://bklyner.com/flatbush-little-haiti-finally/">50,000 Haitian-Americans</a> – it’s time to correct the record. They hope the newly renamed Dessalines Boulevard will burnish the reputation of this Haitian hero.</p>
<h2>Opposition to Dessalines</h2>
<p>Other New Yorkers aren’t so sure. </p>
<p>The New York City Council’s vetting committee labeled Dessalines a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/nyregion/little-haiti-flatbush-brooklyn-street.html">possibly offensive historical figure</a>,” tacitly referencing the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00313220500106196">massacre of French citizens</a> that followed Haiti’s revolution. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233937/original/file-20180828-86123-1hk4hmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233937/original/file-20180828-86123-1hk4hmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233937/original/file-20180828-86123-1hk4hmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233937/original/file-20180828-86123-1hk4hmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233937/original/file-20180828-86123-1hk4hmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233937/original/file-20180828-86123-1hk4hmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233937/original/file-20180828-86123-1hk4hmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti’s founding father.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://aponte.hosting.nyu.edu/visionary-aponte/">Book of Paintings, by Renée Stout</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just after declaring independence, in early 1804, Dessalines discovered that local French colonists <a href="https://haitidoi.com/2015/10/30/dessalines-reader-1-april-1804/">were plotting</a> to overthrow his new government. He ordered all remaining French citizens in Haiti, except for a few <a href="http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/history/earlyhaiti/1805-const.htm">French allies</a>, to be killed. </p>
<p>My research indicates that between 1,000 and 2,000 white landowners and their families, merchants and poor French were executed, always in a very public fashion. Some estimates are as high as <a href="https://blackthen.com/haitian-massacre-organized-cleansing-against-white-population-in-haiti/">5,000</a>. </p>
<p>Dessalines, who protected <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.3.0583?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">all British, American and other non-French white people</a> living in Haiti, justified the killings as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Avengers_of_the_New_World.html?id=x0FCX4Y8ufoC">response to acts of war by France</a>. Despite Haiti’s declared independence, French imperial forces <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469625621/haitian-connections-in-the-atlantic-world/">continued to threaten</a> invasion from their military outpost in Santo Domingo, modern-day Dominican Republic. </p>
<p>To his critics, however, Dessalines’ massacre amounted to “<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/html/dessalines-boulevard-16086.html">white genocide</a>.”</p>
<h2>The limits to Jefferson’s vision of equality</h2>
<p>In researching Dessalines for the biography <a href="https://haitidoi.com/">I am writing</a>, I found that that he was in many ways cut from the same cloth as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and other American revolutionaries. </p>
<p>Dessalines was an Enlightenment thinker who espoused life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And he was willing to use strategic, bloody violence to free his people from colonial rule. </p>
<p>But in his commitment to black equality he was far more radical than America’s founding fathers, who freed the U.S. from England but let black Americans <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/civil-war-toll-up-by-20-percent-in-new-estimate.html">stay in chains for another nine decades</a>.</p>
<p>In June 1803, when Dessalines began planning for independence, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0450">he wrote</a> to President Thomas Jefferson. </p>
<p>Like Americans, he reported, Haitians were “tired of paying with our blood the price of our blind allegiance to a mother country that cuts her children’s throats,” he said. They would fight for their freedom.</p>
<p>Jefferson never responded. </p>
<p>Dessalines’ vision of an autonomous black state – a nation founded by enslaved people who killed their colonial masters – alarmed the patrician Virginia plantation owner, <a href="http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/1748">Jefferson’s letters show</a>. The U.S. was also being pressured by southern slave states and French and British diplomats to <a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/Praeger/product.aspx?pc=D6315C">shun Haiti</a>. </p>
<p>Rather than reckoning with the ills of racial oppression and colonialism, most prominent thinkers <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=84748">across the Americas and Europe</a> interpreted Dessalines’ war as an example of African barbarity. </p>
<p>Haiti was run by a “hord of ferocious banditt” and led by “Barbarous Chieftains,” <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469625621/haitian-connections-in-the-atlantic-world/">commented one British observer in 1804</a>. </p>
<h2>Pushing the Enlightenment further</h2>
<p>This <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1440-the-american-crucible">racist view</a> of Dessalines persisted for two centuries. </p>
<p>Today, modern scholarship is redeeming Haiti’s founding father. </p>
<p>Dessalines challenged the <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/taking-the-enlightenment-seriously-requires-talking-about-race.html">universalist rhetoric</a> of the 1789 French Revolution, when idealists toppled their monarchy demanding “<a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/france-facts/symbols-of-the-republic/article/liberty-equality-fraternity">Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité</a>” – freedom, equality and fraternity.</p>
<p>Yet the French continued to <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/gah/haitian-revolution-1791-1804">use enslaved labor</a> to produce sugar, coffee and other crops in the Caribbean. Dessalines said France had shrouded their colonies in a “<a href="https://haitidoi.com/2015/12/31/dessalines-reader-29-november-1803/">veil of prejudice</a>.” He insisted that true egalité required black liberty, too. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233286/original/file-20180823-149472-1wvbkrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author discovered the only remaining copy of Haiti’s original 1804 Declaration of Independence in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julia Gaffield</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This radical vision of black empowerment is evident in Haiti’s 1804 Declaration of Independence, signed by Dessalines. In 2010 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/world/americas/01document.html">I located</a> the only known extant copy of this stunning founding document, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/julia-gaffield-discovers-haiti-founding-document-in-british-national-archives-d8zrxv0v5xj">at the National Archives of the United Kingdom</a>. </p>
<p>The 1805 Constitution that followed reaffirmed the abolition of slavery in Haiti, making it the first free black state in the Western Hemisphere. </p>
<p>It also eliminated official racial distinctions. According to Haiti’s Constitution, all Haitians, regardless of skin color, would be <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25096441">considered black in the eyes of the law</a>. In Dessalines’ philosophy, race was an ideological concept. By securing Haitian citizenship, a person became black. </p>
<p>Under Dessalines’ rule, blackness was to be the source <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-doesnt-understand-haiti-immigration-or-american-history-87982">of freedom and equality</a> – not bondage. </p>
<h2>Haiti’s rejection on the world stage</h2>
<p>Dessalines’ revolutionary fervor earned him international diplomatic isolation.</p>
<p>France refused to accept Haitian independence until 1825, when Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250002365">agreed to pay</a> 150 million francs – equivalent to US$21 billion today – for the loss of human and territorial “property.” To ensure compliance, French warships with loaded canons threatened the country from the harbor of Port-au-Prince.</p>
<p>Things also went badly for the newly independent Haiti <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469625621/haitian-connections-in-the-atlantic-world/">in its own neighborhood</a>. </p>
<p>Jefferson <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-doesnt-understand-haiti-immigration-or-american-history-87982">imposed an embargo on Haiti</a>, cutting off trade with the country from 1806 to 1808, and the U.S. <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469625621/haitian-connections-in-the-atlantic-world/">refused to recognize</a> Haitian independence until 1862.</p>
<p>Dessalines was assassinated in 1806 by opponents within his own government. </p>
<h2>A modern black hero</h2>
<p>The international smear campaign almost succeeded in erasing Dessalines’ revolutionary legacy.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/nyregion/little-haiti-dessalines-boulevard.html">one opponent</a> to the Little Haiti street renaming claimed, Dessalines is “obscure to most Americans.”</p>
<p>Even within <a href="https://ageofrevolutions.com/2016/02/15/the-2015-16-haitian-elections-politicizing-dessalines-and-the-memory-of-the-haitian-revolution/">Haiti</a>, Dessalines is overshadowed by the black Haitian military leader <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14656.html">Toussaint Louverture</a>, allegedly a more restrained and diplomatic revolutionary. </p>
<p>But as scholars have revised the long-dominant racist narrative about Dessalines, public interest in the abolitionist has grown.</p>
<p>As the Haitian-American <a href="http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Brooklyn-Lawmakers-Celebrate-Street-Co-Naming-of-Jean-Jacques-Dessalines-Boulevard.html?soid=1103413547828&aid=YNH8z5_S990">New York Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte</a> said in Brooklyn, the newly named Dessalines Boulevard is “undoing in a concrete and tangible way centuries of the trivialization of our history.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101963/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Gaffield receives funding from the American Council of Learned Societies. She is affiliated with the Democratic Party. </span></em></p>A renamed Brooklyn street celebrates Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a Haitian slave turned president. For centuries his legacy was tarnished by allegations that Haiti’s revolution led to ‘white genocide.’Julia Gaffield, Assistant Professor of History, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/999992018-08-14T20:26:33Z2018-08-14T20:26:33ZFrench classes in Australia need to acknowledge our Pacific neighbours too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231818/original/file-20180814-2894-b3manj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bonjour!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Things are happening in the Pacific. The <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/geo/pacific/engagement/Documents/stepping-up-australias-pacific-engagement-labour-scheme.pdf">Pacific Labour Scheme</a> officially commenced on July 1 this year, Pacific nations were added to the <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/people-to-people/new-colombo-plan/mobility-program/Pages/mobility-program-guidelines-2018.aspx#_Toc470194462">New Colombo Plan</a>, high-speed undersea internet cables are in the works in the region, and the Prime Minister of Vanuatu and an island-hopping French President were recently in Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-emmanuel-macron-heads-to-australia-the-relationship-is-more-important-than-ever-95650">As Emmanuel Macron heads to Australia, the relationship is more important than ever</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But how prepared is the next generation of Australians for increased engagement with Australia’s eastern neighbours? </p>
<p>There are missed opportunities in the Australian Curriculum, specifically in French language classrooms, for transforming our view of the Pacific from a region often seen as a “big blue patch of water” to a place young Australians are connected to. We need to change the way we teach French so it acknowledges our Pacific neighbours and helps sustain political and socio-cultural relationships with these nations.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3rgzKzWZ_Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The French language can be an authentic and exciting context to learn about Australia’s East-side-neighbours.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>French is a language of the Pacific too</h2>
<p>Deeper engagement could be achieved with the Pacific through Australians learning native languages of various Pacific nations, but French is already the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-languages-should-children-be-learning-to-get-ahead-74305">second most taught language</a> in Australia.</p>
<p>French has been taught in Australia since the <a href="http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/F-10_Australian_Curriculum_Languages_French_(revised)_for_public_viewing_-_February_2014_file.pdf">1880s</a>. But Australia’s proximity to French overseas territories – such as New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia – is not often studied in depth in French classrooms.</p>
<p>Specific attention has been drawn to the French Pacific islands in the latest iteration of the curriculum. It states that they’re <a href="http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/F-10_Australian_Curriculum_Languages_French_(revised)_for_public_viewing_-_February_2014_file.pdf">important for Australia’s bilateral engagement</a> in trade and investment, educational exchanges, research and development in science and technology, humanitarian and environmental initiatives, and communications, strategic and defence priorities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231821/original/file-20180814-2891-17w6tsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231821/original/file-20180814-2891-17w6tsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231821/original/file-20180814-2891-17w6tsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231821/original/file-20180814-2891-17w6tsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231821/original/file-20180814-2891-17w6tsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231821/original/file-20180814-2891-17w6tsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231821/original/file-20180814-2891-17w6tsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Pacific is often presented as a big, empty blue patch of water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the Pacific represents <a href="https://www.francophonie.org/IMG/pdf/1e.pdf">less than 1%</a> of all French speakers worldwide, French is spoken by over <a href="https://www.francophonie.org/IMG/pdf/1e.pdf">half a million people</a> in the region. It’s also one of the official languages of Vanuatu. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231823/original/file-20180814-2912-19m6sir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231823/original/file-20180814-2912-19m6sir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231823/original/file-20180814-2912-19m6sir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231823/original/file-20180814-2912-19m6sir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231823/original/file-20180814-2912-19m6sir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231823/original/file-20180814-2912-19m6sir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231823/original/file-20180814-2912-19m6sir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">French-speaking Pacific nations close to Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But the rationale of using the French language as a vehicle to educate young Australians about the Pacific isn’t in the number of speakers. It lies in its geography. French speakers are scattered across the Pacific region, providing an ideal platform to engage students in rich learning about all of Australia’s East-side neighbours. </p>
<h2>Curriculum transformation</h2>
<p>Australia’s engagement with its East-side neighbours is predominantly undertaken by the <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/geo/pacific/development-assistance/Pages/development-assistance-in-the-pacific.aspx">Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade</a> (DFAT). While DFAT’s role is critical, it’s not sufficient in creating and sustaining mutually beneficial and long-term partnerships between governments and the people they represent. </p>
<p>The vehicle of education, particularly on a large scale through schools, is integral to enhancing this relationship. We know this because of the success of the effort to increase knowledge of our North-side Asian neighbours through curriculum in the “<a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/asia-and-australia-s-engagement-with-asia/">Asian century</a>”. It’s in Australia’s best interest to create a generation of young Australians who are willing and able to engage with their East-side neighbours as well. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231819/original/file-20180814-2891-hx9kt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231819/original/file-20180814-2891-hx9kt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231819/original/file-20180814-2891-hx9kt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231819/original/file-20180814-2891-hx9kt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231819/original/file-20180814-2891-hx9kt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231819/original/file-20180814-2891-hx9kt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231819/original/file-20180814-2891-hx9kt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Midgley, 2017</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But <a href="https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/53100/">research</a> shows the lack of resources and strong perpetuating France-centric curriculum content make it hard for teachers to move towards teaching about French-speaking Pacific nations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-french-is-taught-in-south-africa-offers-lessons-in-decolonisation-84090">The way French is taught in South Africa offers lessons in decolonisation</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our <a href="https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/53100/">research</a>, conducted with teachers and schools in North Queensland, found it was possible to continue teaching to the Australian curriculum while developing knowledge of Australia’s East-side neighbours by using French Pacific examples and literature.</p>
<p>At the university level, classical French novels were replaced by Pacific literature, such as <a href="https://mondesfrancophones.com/blog/en-librairie/quintet-de-frederic-ohlen-le-roman-du-caillou/">Frédéric Ohlen’s Quintet</a>. Such significant change was not always necessary in schools. It was possible to start small, with the context around greetings, families and daily life shifted to Pacific communities. </p>
<p>For example, stereotypically beginner students of French are often exposed to introductory materials such as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bonjour! Je m’appelle Pierre. J’habite à Paris en France. J’ai douze ans.</p>
<p>(Hello! My name is Pierre. I live in Paris, France. I am 12.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In looking at the Pacific, one could say: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bonjour! Je m’appelle Manatea. J’habite à Puna’auia en Polynésie Française. J'ai onze ans.</p>
<p>(Hello! My name is Manatea. I live in Puna’auia, French Polynesia. I am 11.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other common contexts for teaching school French such as sports, food and schooling also worked effectively when focused on the East-side neighbours. </p>
<p>When these changes were implemented over a full school term by the teachers in the study, students gained knowledge about the East-side neighbours and developed an open, curious attitude toward the Pacific and its people. In the words of one student: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was the first time I have learnt about these countries, so it was very interesting.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Working towards a Pacific-literate nation</h2>
<p>The Pacific nations in this region are <a href="https://www.jcu.edu.au/state-of-the-tropics/publications/2014">extremely vulnerable</a> to environmental disasters and face other serious social, economic and political challenges. Australia shares an inevitable, interwoven future with these nations. </p>
<p>Our proximity to and political connection with these nations provides the incentive for a shift in curriculum from a Euro- to Pacific-orientation. The French language is of geo-political significance to Australia. In the same way we transformed the curriculum for engagement with Asia, we need to transform the French classroom to develop understanding of and connectedness to the Pacific region and the people who live there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Florence Monique Boulard receives funding from DFAT and Queensland Government (Department of Education). </span></em></p>To sustain geo-political relations with French-speaking Pacific nations in the future, we need to change the way French is taught to young Australians.Florence Monique Boulard, Lecturer in Modern Languages, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874702017-12-12T14:58:11Z2017-12-12T14:58:11ZWest Africa: empirehood and colonialism offer lessons in integration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198564/original/file-20171211-15358-mcmtm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Great Mosque of Djenné, in Mali, has a history dating back to the 13th century which can inspire regional trade in West Africa.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The dream of the founding fathers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was, among others, to foster trade and development among member states. But the integration dream will only be realised if institutional barriers to trade are addressed. These include poor protection of trade routes, weak enforcement, the fact that traders don’t know their rights and how to make complaints, and the lack of a common currency in the region. </p>
<p>The union has relied on agreements and announcements to meet its integration goals. But they aren’t enough. ECOWAS needs to operate beyond the office and paper agreements. It needs to establish physical operations at border points. </p>
<p>Leaders have lessons to learn from history – both ancient and recent. Our <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.3292/full">latest study</a> shows that policymakers concerned with deepening integration in <a href="http://www.ecowas.int/">ECOWAS</a> should look back in time to regional trade institutions in West Africa.</p>
<h2>How empires laid the foundation for integration</h2>
<p>Western Sudan experienced three major empires - Ghana, Mali and Songhai - from around 790 to 1650 AD. These empires covered most of present day West Africa and, to some extent, defined the precolonial history of the region. They laid the foundations for standards governing regional trade. For example, the Mali Empire – which succeeded and absorbed the Ghana Empire – adopted the import and export taxes it found. The Mali and Songhai empires - through consensus, trust and cooperation - subsumed more than 24 lesser kings under their authority. </p>
<p>The expansion of empires by absorbing other empires gradually led to common trade taxes and institutions. The <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/manden-charter-proclaimed-in-kurukan-fuga-00290">Mande charter of 1236</a> was particularly important. The charter is one of the oldest constitutions in the world although in oral form. It brought clans and small kingdoms together and codified how they were governed. It’s provisions entrenched tolerance and social peace among diverse groups through the building of trust and cooperation. Citizens of different clans and kingdoms agreed to live under one king in order to maintain peace, protect trade routes and harmonise trade rules. </p>
<p>In those ancient times, intra-West African trade was extensive with cowrie shells, gold, copper, manillas and cloth acting as common currencies and facilitating trade in the region. </p>
<p>But the last major empire in West Africa - Songhai - collapsed around 1650, creating a power vacuum that resulted in internal conflicts. This gave rise to inward looking kingdoms, and marked another turning point in the development of trade institutions in West Africa. </p>
<h2>Slave trade, colonialism and regional institutions</h2>
<p>The conventional argument is that the <a href="http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/">Atlantic slave trade (1500 and 1900)</a> and subsequent <a href="http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-colonization-of-africa.html">colonisation (1885 - late 1960s)</a> interrupted the natural development of institutions in the region. But it’s important to note that institutions such as common currencies, single administration, contract enforcement through chiefs and a common education system were put in place. These institutions continue to be important in promoting regional trade. </p>
<p>Colonialism led to a production structure that served international rather than regional trade. Europeans were interested in trade flows between Europe and West Africa, where West Africa provided the raw materials for manufactured goods. </p>
<p>Despite the potential practical benefits, enthusiasm to preserve the institutions of the colonial powers gradually waned, particularly in the British colonies. Apart from the West African Examination Council - which designed a uniform curriculum and examination materials for all the British West African colonies - other institutions in the former British colonies were abandoned after independence. Things were somewhat different in the French colonies where the single currency and some of the other institutions of colonial times were maintained. </p>
<p>During colonial times, contracts were enforced and disputes settled in ways similar to the empirehood period. Chiefs in the colonial era communicated the value of the colonial currency to the locals and taught them how to avoid exploitation. These chiefs were synonymous to the representatives in provinces during the empirehood. </p>
<p>But the protection of trade routes was more standardised and better enforced during the empirehood than it was in the colonial period. For example, during the colonial period, the influence of European traders gradually replaced that of the chiefs, and consequently led to bandits and robbers attacking trade routes.</p>
<p>Just as the royal armies patrolled trade routes and royal officials in the provinces monitored arrangements during the empirehood, ECOWAS needs to deploy personnel to patrol trade routes as well as place staff at border points to monitor how trade takes place. </p>
<h2>Deep integration</h2>
<p>The empirehood and colonial eras offer a practical case study for West Africa to have the confidence that deep integration is feasible. </p>
<p>Over the longer term, a federal style administration could be a sustainable approach to deeper integration. For example, West Africa could be clustered into zones where each zone has an elected head of state on a rotational basis. But it would require strong political will to give up national sovereignty. This can only be considered if it can be demonstrated that the benefits would be greater than under current arrangements. </p>
<p>Some progress has been made. A common external tariff for the region came into force in 2015. And more economic integration is happening with the establishment of the <a href="http://www.uemoa.int/en/presentation-uemoa">West African Economic and Monetary Union</a> and the <a href="http://www.wami-imao.org/">West African Monetary Zone</a>. </p>
<p>In the shorter term, we also suggest that regional trade institutions such as a common currency, enforcement of contracts and protection of trade routes become more standardised. In addition, ECOWAS needs to use the media to tell people about their rights. It must also be ready to punish those who harass traders, and to give incentives to its officers to reduce the motivation to take bribes.</p>
<p>These steps worked in the empirehood era. They worked in the colonial era. They will work today to foster trade among member states and integrate the West African region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>West Africa has lessons to learn from its ancient empires and colonial governments on regional trade and integration.Karen Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of WestminsterDavid Potts, Senior Lecturer (Development Economics/Project Appraisal), University of BradfordEssa Bah, Teaching Assistant in Economics, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779972017-05-30T13:56:01Z2017-05-30T13:56:01ZFrance and Africa: Macron’s rhetoric shouldn’t be confused with reality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170581/original/file-20170523-5799-1poproa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">French President Emmanuel Macron with Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Christophe Petit Tesson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2017 French election was watched with great nervousness by millions across Francophone Africa. That’s because the French president remains a pivotal figure in about <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20100214-1960-year-independence">20 former French colonies</a> on the continent. </p>
<p>Over the past 60 years France has maintained disproportionate influence over its former African colonies. This has included control over their <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2011/06/11/the-ongoing-relationship-between-france-and-its-former-african-colonies/">military and currencies</a>. </p>
<p>Despite being led by different presidents over the past six decades, the French government’s policy on Africa has been faithful to its neo-colonial roots and grounded in a yearning for the lost <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/French_Empire">Empire</a>. </p>
<p>But will Emmanuel Macron’s presidency herald a significant change to France’s relationship with its ex-colonies? </p>
<p>Unlike any other French leader Macron has openly expressed remorse for aspects of France’s <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20170219-french-presidential-hopeful-macron-apologises-controversial-comments-colonialism">colonial past</a>. His election rhetoric suggested that he viewed France’s neo-colonial dominance with some embarrassment, preferring to loosen France’s hold on its <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39843396">former colonies</a>. </p>
<p>But it’s one thing to speak of France’s need to confront its colonial past. When it comes to restoring <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/macron-vows-restore-france-global-status-170514171704652.html">French “confidence”</a>, as Macron has promised, policy continuity, rather than change, will prevail.</p>
<h2>A long legacy</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of World War II, Charles De Gaulle formulated a strategy that was meant to define France’s relations with Africa in the post-imperial era. </p>
<p>The plan was to shore up France’s international standing by ensuring a continued <a href="https://www.worldpittsburgh.org/the-french-legacy-in-africa/">relationship with its colonies</a>. In fact, the short-lived Franco-African Union of the 1940s-50s was an attempt to establish a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358536008452284?journalCode=ctrt20">form of federation</a> between France and its former colonies. </p>
<p>Instead, what sprung up across Francophone countries in West and Central Africa was <a href="https://thisisafrica.me/france-loots-former-colonies/">a network</a> of French commercial, military and political interests. These interests worked to maintain the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mahamadou-lamine-sagna/franceafrique-breaking-th_b_3318530.html">status quo</a> of African economic and political elites. </p>
<p>Francafrique had strong <a href="https://thisisafrica.me/france-loots-former-colonies/">colonial underpinnings</a>. Former French colonies provided France with valuable raw material and minerals while opening their markets to French imports. In return, France <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/22/europes-former-imperial-powers-target-aid-ex-colonies">guaranteed</a> national security and a steady flow of aid. </p>
<p>France also propped up francophile leaders, in particular Senegal’s <a href="http://peterbaxterafrica.com/index.php/2012/11/19/leopold-sedar-senghor-the-life-of-a-french-african/">Leopold Sédar Senghor</a> and Cote d’Ivoire’s <a href="http://sites.psu.edu/afr110/2014/10/14/felix-houphouet-boigny/">Felix Houphouet-Boigny</a>. Both saw themselves as the guardians of a paternalistic order that kept Francophone Africa under French tutelage. </p>
<p>More than that, France retained control of the CFA – the basic monetary unit of Central and West Africa. To this day African countries such as Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Gabon, are required <a href="https://thisisafrica.me/france-loots-former-colonies/">to deposit two-thirds</a> of their foreign exchange surpluses into a French operations account. </p>
<p>During Francois Mitterrand’s term in office (1981 - 1995) <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eternal-plight-france-in-search-of-a-new-africa-policy-a-546796.html">60,000</a> French troops were stationed in Francophone Africa. They supported several unsavoury governments, including the Hutu regime presided over by Juvenal Habyarimana in Rwanda, which went on to <a href="http://survivors-fund.org.uk/resources/rwandan-history/statistics/">murder 800,000 Tutsis and some Hutus</a> in the 1994 genocide. French soldiers <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eternal-plight-france-in-search-of-a-new-africa-policy-a-546796.html">did little</a> to stop the bloodbath. </p>
<p>However, relations between France and its former colonies entered a new phase in the post 9/11 era. The Islamic Sahel and Arab North Africa became a <a href="http://newafricanmagazine.com/terror-came-sahel/">new frontier</a> in the global fight against terror. </p>
<p>French investment and commitment to development faded, paving the way for <a href="http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/development-assistance/french-assistance-institutional/french-assistance-delivery/article/french-bilateral-aid">bilateral funding</a>. Policy moved from guarding strategic assets to securing economic assets by any means necessary. </p>
<p>Under President Jacques Chirac (1995-2007), French policy was <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eternal-plight-france-in-search-of-a-new-africa-policy-a-546796.html">distinctly interventionist</a>.
In 2002, France extended <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eternal-plight-france-in-search-of-a-new-africa-policy-a-546796.html">military support</a> to Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire when his regime was threatened by a rebel insurgency. It remained heavily involved in Cote d'Ivoire until 2011 when <a href="http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/crises/crisis-in-ivory-coast">Gbagbo was dislodged</a> after a bitterly contested election. </p>
<h2>The post-Chirac era</h2>
<p>Chirac was the last of the paternalistic, Gaullist French leaders. After his presidency, France became unapologetically mercantilist: it remains in Francophone Africa to protect its nationals, to guard its assets and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/23/outlook.development">to counter Chinese competition</a> for natural resources and markets. </p>
<p>After Chirac, came President Nicolas Sarkozy who had little empathy for Africa. Sarkozy’s policy was centred on immigration, an issue that was at the top of his government’s agenda. As a way to deter immigration he adopted a “co-development” strategy, which saw France invest in <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/sarkozy-and-africa-misunderstanding-or-change">education</a> in Francophone Africa.</p>
<p>Socialist president Francois Hollande (2012 - 2017) became more involved in Africa than any other president, contradicting his apparently <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20795750">progressive rhetoric</a>, which suggested a rethink of France’s neo-colonial relationship with the continent. </p>
<p>During Hollande’s term security issues that threatened French interests led to a series of military interventions. These included Operation Serval and <a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Sahel-Watch-a-living-analysis-of-the-conflict-in-Mali/Five-strategic-failures-of-the-French-intervention-in-Mali">Operation Barkhane</a> in Mali. </p>
<p>There were also military interventions in <a href="http://en.rfi.fr/africa/20160430-france-boost-military-presence-cote-ivoire-0">Cote d’Ivoire</a>, and the <a href="http://gulfnews.com/news/africa/operation-sangaris-france-s-military-mission-in-car-1.1920968">Central African Republic</a>. </p>
<p>What started out as an ideological policy to maintain soft power through cultural and economic ties between France and francophone Africa had gradually become a coercive, militarised relationship.</p>
<h2>The age of Macron</h2>
<p>During the election campaign Emmanuel Macron told <em>Le Figaro</em> that France’s colonial occupation of Algeria was mired by “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/87d6f430-f521-11e6-95ee-f14e55513608">crimes against humanity</a>” and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/87d6f430-f521-11e6-95ee-f14e55513608">“acts of barbarism”</a>.</p>
<p>Macron is the first self-styled apologist to take office in France. He is calling for the severing of France’s relationship with Francophone Africa, but on African terms. Macron argues that a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39843396">gradual phasing out</a> of the CFA franc and withdrawal of French troops should be implemented if that’s what Africans want. </p>
<p>But, nearly 60 years after African independence, France and Francophone Africa remain entangled beyond separation. French companies still have a <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201387113131914906.html">quasi-monopoly</a> over the most strategic areas in Francophone economies. Examples include electricity, telecommunications, infrastructure, airports and harbours. France’s continued influence on Francophone African foreign policy is apparent in Africa’s policy alignments. </p>
<p>Macron is a neo-liberal and former investment banker determined to open Africa up for greater trade even amid security concerns. His <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39968319">first visit</a> outside Europe was to French military forces in Mali. Some see this as a sign that his presidency may have an increasingly <a href="https://guardian.ng/politics/what-macrons-election-means-for-africa/">militaristic impact</a> on Africa. </p>
<p>Macron’s sober view of colonial history therefore should be taken with a pinch of salt, as he’s unlikely to loosen France’s grip over Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meera Venkatachalam's primary affiliation is with the Observer Research Foundation in India.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Niang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite being led by different presidents over the past six decades, the French government’s policy on Africa has been faithful to its neo-colonial roots. Will Macron’s government be any different?Meera Venkatachalam, Senior Fellow, African Studies, University of Mumbai Amy Niang, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.