France’s grip on Africa fades

by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron is stepping up efforts to redefine Paris’ relationship with Africa after years of declining influence across parts of Francophone West and Central Africa, signalling a strategic shift from military engagement towards investment-led partnerships.

The renewed diplomatic push, highlighted by France’s inaugural Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi in May, comes as several African governments increasingly assert greater control over their political, economic and security affairs, reshaping one of the continent’s most enduring geopolitical relationships.

Arriving in Kenya with a €23 billion investment package covering energy, artificial intelligence, infrastructure and cultural cooperation, Macron acknowledged that France was entering a new chapter in Africa.

“The age of Françafrique is well over,” Macron declared, distancing his administration from the post-independence system through which Paris maintained extensive political, military and economic influence across many of its former colonies.

Ahead of the summit, he reiterated France’s intention “to build partnerships on an equal footing, founded on shared interests and tangible results”, reflecting Paris’ attempt to rebuild confidence through commerce and investment rather than military deployments.

The Nairobi summit—France’s first major Africa summit hosted in an Anglophone country—was widely viewed by analysts as part of Paris’ broader effort to deepen relations with influential regional economies such as Kenya and Ghana after a series of strategic setbacks in the Sahel.

While French officials describe the approach as a modern partnership based on mutual interests, many African commentators see it as an acknowledgement that traditional instruments of French influence have steadily weakened as African governments pursue more independent foreign policies.

“Sometimes, I get the feeling that mindsets haven’t moved along as much as we have, when I read, hear and see people ascribing intentions to France that it doesn’t have,” Macron said, arguing that Paris sought a fundamentally different relationship with the continent.

The shift follows one of the most significant geopolitical realignments in Africa since the end of formal colonial rule.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have expelled French troops, formed the Alliance of Sahel States and adopted new security and diplomatic partnerships.

Senegal and Chad have also requested the withdrawal or reduction of French military forces, arguing that national sovereignty requires African governments to determine their own defence priorities.

For decades, France exercised considerable influence through defence agreements, commercial networks and the CFA franc monetary system, often described by critics as the foundation of Françafrique.

Across Africa, governments and civil society groups have increasingly questioned whether those arrangements delivered equitable development or primarily served external strategic interests.

Economic sovereignty has become another defining issue. Several governments are reviewing mining agreements, renegotiating concessions or increasing state participation in strategic industries involving uranium, gold and other critical minerals.

Supporters argue that Africa must capture greater value from its natural wealth instead of remaining largely an exporter of raw materials.

At the Nairobi summit, Kenyan President William Ruto welcomed deeper cooperation but made clear that future partnerships must reflect Africa’s changing priorities.

“The partnership must not be built on dependency but on sovereign equality, not on aid or charity but on mutually beneficial investment, and not on extraction or exploitation but on win-win engagements,” Ruto said.

France’s deepening engagement with Kenya and Ghana is routinely portrayed as a bid for commercial footholds in two of Africa’s fastest-expanding markets – and, on the surface, that logic holds: Nairobi anchors the east, Accra anchors the west.

But in Ghana’s case, the real calculation runs deeper. Accra has never been a traditional bastion of Françafrique, yet for Paris it is fast becoming less a trade gateway than a strategic back door to the Sahel – the very region where Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have slipped from French military grasp, but where Macron’s government still nurses a quiet ambition to regain lost leverage, not through boots on the ground, but through influence channelled from next door.

For many African policymakers, however, attracting foreign investment is no longer enough.

The emphasis is increasingly on partnerships that create local industries, transfer technology, generate skilled employment and respect national policy choices.

For France, the stakes remain considerable. Africa’s expanding population, abundant strategic minerals, energy resources and growing consumer markets continue to make the continent central to global economic competition.

A continued decline in French influence would reduce Paris’ diplomatic leverage and commercial footprint in one of the world’s fastest-transforming regions.

For Africa, the changing relationship represents something more profound: an opportunity to redefine engagement with all global partners on terms shaped by African priorities.

– CAJ News