French president Nicolas Sarkozy is confirming his belonging to another generation of statesmen. His rhetoric, frankness and outspokenness which people thought were going to result into multiple diplomatic scandals and crises, are rather becoming his strongest features.
Let us take his view of his country’s colonial past. I had never heard any president, except perhaps for Germany and Japan (two countries with unfortunate war experience), so negatively criticizing his country’ s past! All would diplomatically and artificially admit mistakes and emphasize the “ civilizing mission” that the colonizer conducted despite some abuses. That is not Sarkozy’s style, and I really appreciate this.
“It is true that Europeans came to Africa as conquerors. They took the lands of your ancestors. They banned your gods, your languages, your beliefs, the customs of your forefathers. They told your ancestors what they had to think about, what they had to believe in, what they had to do. They disconnected your forefathers from their past, they uprooted their souls. They disenchanted Africa. THEY WERE WRONG”, Sarkozy said on 26 July in Dakar Cheikh Anta Diop University.
He went on to say: “ the colonizer came, served himself, exploited, looted resources and wealth that did not belong to them. He stripped the colonized of his personality, his freedom, his land, and the fruit of his work”.
These are words that we could rather expect from Jomo Kenyatta, Nkwameh Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba during their independence struggles in the 60s. Those African heroes and many others questioned the “civilizing mission” of the colonizer.
The question is now to know what France together with other former colonial powers intends to do as her president has admitted full responsibility in the destruction of Africa. By acknowledging that the colonizer took every thing, ranging from religious beliefs to land and other resources, Sarkozy admits that his country voluntarily took away the basis on which Africa should have based her development. By doing so, France and other former colonizers developed themselves with the “ stolen resources” which put them in a better economic situation now.
“Africa has her own part in her own misfortune”, said Sarkozy, giving no further details except that Africans had killed each other just like Europeans did. I would have liked to hear from Sarkozy how the killings of Africans by Africans contributed to the continent’s misfortune. That way, I could have drawn the conclusion as to who is to be blamed first for that misfortune. All in all, from Sarkozy’s point of view, the colonizer is to be blamed and thus has to take his responsibility.
Let me end my reflection with the place where Sarkozy pronounced his speech. Senegal is Sedar Senghor’s homeland. Senghor is known for having initiated the Negritude Movement together with other African and Caribbean students in France in the 1930s. The movement was aimed to call Africans to go back to their roots, a kind of African cultural renaissance. The weakness of that movement was that it was conducted in French which killed local languages, the only vehicles of cultural heritage that the colonizer banned.
OPINION: Welcome to African Green Revolution24/05
Egyptians vote in historic election23/05
Africa Day 2012 - a moment for reflection and…22/05
South Africa's African agenda21/05
Women struggle to rinse hunger, poverty stains21/05
Climate Climate change affects migratory birds…21/05
Ghana: Foreign retailers cited for currency…18/05
Kenya: Community radio brings succour to…18/05
Veld fires 'flame' Zimbabwe's…16/05
Liberia commends ECOWAS for support14/05
Vanishing Lake Chad puts 30m lives at risk14/05
Heavy rains cause havoc in Kenya14/05
Zimbabwe: Growth points lie dormant14/05
Sierra Leone improves in infant mortality11/05
Zimbabwe: Resettled farmers fail to utilize…10/05
