Ibrahim Namaiwa: National unity, cohesion - weapons of African countries against French colonialism

The topic of French colonialism and neocolonialism has remained relevant in the media in Africa and Türkiye over the past week, Report informs.

Nigerian civil society activist and member of the Movement for the Promotion of Responsible Citizenship (MPCR) Ibrahim Namaiwa told the local TV channel Télé Sahel that France has become a country of obscurantism.

"France has declared war on us, and it will never leave us alone. It was once the France of the Enlightenment, and today we see that it has become the France of obscurantism - the same France that breeds terrorism and declares war on sovereign states. Realizing this situation, we understand that France will never leave us alone. Therefore, our weapon must be general mobilization, national unity, cohesion, which must not weaken," the activist believes.

Togolese political scientist Firmin Teko Agbo told NW Info that France's colonial policy was aimed at plundering African countries and obtaining maximum economic benefit: "France, for example, has no cocoa, France has no coffee, but it comes to the [African] continent, it looks for coffee, it looks for cocoa. It creates large enterprises [in France], thousands of jobs are created throughout French territory. And this brings [them] millions of euros, but at the same time, we who produce coffee or cocoa, we are poor. We have cotton in Togo, we have cotton in several countries, in Benin and so on, but it is exploited by others. And now, since we do not have the necessary expertise, they [France] exploit it and take the money for themselves."

International politics expert Gamal Abina said on the Algerian radio station Souk Ahras that the colonial issue remains relevant in the minds of local citizens: "Algeria has now made a radical decision - to start developing [national] wealth, to develop industry, to become autonomous, to choose its partners - real economic partners who guarantee both a balanced exchange and, especially, the possibility of creating wealth within the country, to develop industry, to achieve the transfer of knowledge and technology. And this is very badly received by France, which until now has pursued a policy of constant predatory exploitation of Algeria, without offering any qualitative contribution [in return], continuing to trade with it as if it were an open market."

According to him, today Algeria has chosen more reliable partners, for example, Italy.

"France is losing its economic markets, which it considered "natural", it is losing its prestige again, in relation to the territory that it considered its own for too long," he noted.

Rwandan journalist Gentil Gedeon Ntirenganya said on Radio Rwanda that France, as part of its colonial policy in Africa, introduced a category of white people called "pieds-noirs" (black-footed).

"These were colonists who were considered noble people, exceptional, with great wealth. They appropriated everything they found in Algeria, owned large tracts of land, had power... And then the French said again: ... the natives and the immigrants can be divided even further. Let's say that some are Muslims and others are Christians. They used all this to divide the country - and that is why this war lasted so long," he said.