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By Alexandra Prior
Rabat – French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to go on a sub-Saharan country tour this week, amid not only skepticism from within his country, but also a newly discovered crisis in Libya.
Macron is set to travel to Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana, ending his tour by participating in an European Union-African Union conference. The principal reason for Macron’s long-awaited Africa tour is to reopen lines of communication between the France and the formerly colonized nations while backing off from France’s age-old policy of “Francafrique.” The 39-year-old president hopes to maintain a friendly, open relationship with the sub-Saharan countries rather than further the unequal Europe-Africa power dynamic. He plans to do this predominantly through speaking to the young generation of students in Ouagadougou, Abidjan, and Ghana.
Macron’s visit falls upon unfortunate circumstances, however. Less than two weeks ago, CNN uncovered a harrowing secret in Libya: a full-fledged industry of human trafficking that has been rampant since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The discovery of this crisis sent the international community into a full tailspin, causing Macron himself to call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council at the end of this week.
Macron’s critics say that his visit is just a ploy to preserve trade alliances between France and its former colonies as he scales back France’s paternalistic relations within the continent. More than that, he is not going to be welcomed with open arms: a significant amount of animosity still persists between the African countries and France, particularly amongst the youths that Macron seeks to appeal to.
With a myriad of different dynamics at play, Macron’s visit to sub-Saharan Africa will undoubtedly be an eventful one.
