France’s Colonial Grip on Africa is Weakening

Just yesterday we brought attention to French President Macron’s hypocritical denunciations of imperialism in the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere. Since 2020, several coups in West Africa have challenged France’s control over its former colonies and forced Macron to renew French efforts to maintain hegemony in the region. Notably, Assimi Goïta’s 2021 coup in Mali resulted in the expulsion of French troops from the country in 2022 and the removal of French from official language status in the country. Ibrahim Traore’s September 2022 coup in Burkina Faso also had a definite decolonial character, and demonstrated Burkinabé dissatisfaction with Western security and economic arrangements. On July 26, 2023, President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger was overthrown in a palace coup orchestrated by the presidential guard. General Abdourahamane Tchiani, now the president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland — a revolutionary junta composed of military officials — detained Bazoum in the  presidential palace. Since the July 26th assumption of power by the National Council, the revolutionary junta has suspended all uranium and gold exports from Niger to its former imperial overlord, France, and the other Eurozone parasites. In response, the imperialists in Paris have bared their fangs, leveling economic sanctions and a threatened full-scale military invasion.

In subject and colonized countries, wars of national liberation sometimes take the form of semi-revolutionary or revolutionary military seizures of power. The putative “democratic” elements in countries deeply compromised by neo-colonial hegemony, like those of Niger, are a mere cover for imperialist control. National militaries, however, generally have long traditions of national pride; it is sometimes from the oppressed-national military tradition that national liberation finds its most fertile soil.

Upon receiving news of the coup, Macron decried it as, “completely illegitimate and profoundly dangerous for the Nigeriens, Niger and the whole region.” However, Macron, as the official representative of French imperialism, could never admit to the simple fact  that the Council’s seizure is not dangerous to Nigeriens, Niger, or the region; it’s dangerous to France and Western interests.

Niger has been a cornerstone of French imperial policy in Africa since the 19th century. It straddles the Sahel and Sahara regions, and shares an immense land border with Nigeria to the south. Niger has served as the military staging ground for French excursions into neighboring regions, what are now Chad and Mali, since the old imperial powers crassly divided Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1884. Although Niger was granted nominal independence from France in 1960, there have been few years when French compradors, those among the neo-colonial ruling class who help siphon-off the wealth of the national economy and ship it to Paris, were not in charge.

Today, Niger supplies 25% of the uranium used in the EU’s nuclear power generation. 35% of the uranium for France’s nuclear reactors comes from Niger. Meanwhile, only 14% of Niger’s population of 25.25 million have reasonable access to electricity, while 62% have no access whatsoever. Hundreds of thousands of Nigeriens live exposed to radioactive waste leftover from the mining process. France has never displayed any alarm over the radioactive tailings its empire leaves behind. The French “alarm” over this coup is blatantly cynical and self-interested, not motivated by genuine concern for the Nigeriens, for whom the French government has never before displayed an ounce of sympathy. More accurately, France fears the loss of modern comforts, which are only possible due to its exploitation of Africa’s natural resources. The French may soon experience the rolling blackouts and brownouts that they’ve forced on Nigeriens for decades.

Perhaps even more alarming to France than the loss of access to resources is the potential disruption to its currency hegemony over West Africa. Mohamed Bazoum, the deposed president, had been a pliant and steady leader of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), which controls the West African Franc. Forcing its former colonies to use a currency pegged to the Euro locks African nations into accepting trade deals that any honest person would simply call theft. Recently, African radicals such as Julius Malema, President of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa, have proposed creating a Pan-African currency backed by Africa’s natural resources. The prospect of this currency terrifies the empire. Recently leaked emails of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton of the U.S. Empire revealed NATO killed Gaddafi in part to stop the formation of a Pan-African gold-backed currency like the one proposed by Malema. The U.S. and its NATO allies are willing to go to great lengths to stop a Pan-African union.

Significantly, this coup also symbolizes Niger’s rejection of American and French influence on its military affairs, and a rejection of the NATO client, Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) dominance over the region. Western mouthpieces such as Anthony Blinken, the American Secretary of State, have lamented the deterioration of the “security situation” in Niger, but his words sound hollow. After all, General Tchiani directly cited French and American ineptitude in conflicts with Islamic militants as one of the reasons for the coup in the first place!

The real concern for France and America is that Niger will follow Mali and Burkina Faso’s example: expel Western troops from its borders and turn to Russia’s Wagner Group for military assistance. Symbolically, the coup was carried out when Bazoum declined to personally attend the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg. After the coup, there were some pro-Russia demonstrations in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, and Wagner Group’s leader Prigozhin lauded the coup’s success. The loss of Niger as a Western client would be devastating for American military power in West Africa. America’s six bases in Niger, the most it has in a single African country, are strategically positioned to secure its share of uranium, and serve as the command hub for all American operations across Western Africa.

In a further act of hypocrisy, western powers also criticized the deleterious socio-economic impact that the coup could have on Niger, but supported the fierce sanctions that their puppet ECOWAS immediately imposed against the country. France, America, and ECOWAS are so panic stricken over their loss of control (and of uranium) that they are threatening a military intervention if Bazoum is not restored to power within a week. Meanwhile, Mali and Burkina Faso have pledged to militarily support Niger in the event of an intervention against the new government.

Sanctions and threat of military intervention, against an already impoverished and exploited nation, must be unequivocally condemned. Western pontification about Niger’s security and socioeconomic situation should be exposed as the sardonic ruse it is. Have no illusions — The United States Empire, and its partner, France, only care about Niger insofar as they can continue to exploit it. The people of Niger, all victims of French colonialism, and colonized people the world over, must be free to overthrow their oppressors, claim their national wealth, and seek national development on their own terms.