This year’s Françafrique Summit will be held in Kenya !

The France-Africa Summit, which has been held regularly since 1973 (see Wikipedia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sommet_France-Afrique), will take place this year in Kenya. Pompously renamed “Africa Forward : Partnerships Between Africa and France for Innovation and Growth,” it claims to focus on ecology and global warming, but is in fact nothing more than a business forum for French imperialism on the continent.
It is generally held every two or three years, alternating between African capitals and France. After a hiatus since 2021 (the Montpellier summit), these summits are being held for the first time in a non-French-speaking country. We asked African comrades from the ILPS (International League of People’s Struggle) Regional Committee for Africa and West Asia to answer a few questions.

In France, people are more or less familiar with the role of French colonization in Central and West Africa. But much less is known about France’s role in the rest of the continent. What is the current state of French imperialism in East Africa ?
Currently, France maintains a military base in Djibouti and is rebuilding ties with African countries, specifically Kenya. France is one of the five biggest foreign investors in Kenya. France and Kenya signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement last year which provides for military cooperation, intelligence sharing, training and the special treatment of visiting forces signaling the stationing of French troops in the country.

Which French monopolies have the strongest presence in East Africa ? We’ve heard a bit about TotalEnergies’ role in Mozambique, but we know little about the situation there.
TotalEnergies, Orange, Bollore and CFAO are the French monopolies with the strongest presence in East Africa. There are also Electricité de France and AFD (French Development Agency.
The number of French companies in Kenya has risen from 35 in 2012 to over 140 today. Thus, Accor, Peugeot, Decathlon, and Société Générale officially entered the Kenyan market in 2017.
Not to mention that Kenya serves as a strategic hub for establishing a presence throughout the sub-region.

Can we say there’s a link between the withdrawal of French imperialist armed forces from the Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger) and these efforts in East Africa ? In a way, is this about replacing one sphere of influence with another ?
Yes, we believe so. France is reestablishing its presence in the African continent to rejoin the imperialist scramble for resources, both mineral and human, and markets for both excess capital and finished goods. Africa is considered the world’s richest continent in terms of labor and natural resources. It holds 30% of the world’s mineral resources, 12% of oil and 8% of natural gas. Sixty-five per cent of the world’s arable land is in Africa. Africa’s 1.58 billion population comprises 15% of the world population. It is a young and rapidly growing population. France is entering a room, which is Africa, through another door.

What is the overall purpose of the “Africa Forward” summit—essentially a business forum—to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 11 and 12 ? Which heads of state will be attending ? Beyond East Africa, are there special relations with Kenya (we know that France is reportedly the third-largest investor in Kenya, behind the United Kingdom (28.3% of FDI) and Mauritius (10.6%), and ahead of the United Arab Emirates and India) ?
The overall purpose of the “Africa Forward” summit is to sell to the African population the reentry of France to the continent through less hostile East African countries and a soft approach. You can see that France packages its reentry to Africa as a partnership with African nations to face global issues like the climate crisis, environment and the international financial architecture. We don’t have a list of the heads of state that will be attending the summit but 30 heads of state and government representatives are expected to attend. As I mentioned earlier, France inked a Defence Cooperation Agreement with Kenya late last year which provides for cooperation on maritime security, intelligence sharing, training and of course, the presence of French troops on Kenyan soil.

What is the connection between these efforts in East Africa and France’s presence in the Indian Ocean (Mayotte and control of the Mozambique Channel, the Scattered Islands, ties with Madagascar, Réunion Island, etc.) ? Currently, imperialist France is strengthening its presence and intervention in the Indo-Pacific region (see the recent defense agreement with the Philippines, the presence in Kanaky) ; what connection can we discern—or not ?
France seeks to use its presence in Kenya and the Horn of Africa to heighten its involvement in the Indo- Pacific region. France is using its colonies with its overseas “French citizens”, a vast exclusive economic zone, eight thousand military troops, military bases in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and its alliance with Western powers as leverage to contain China and reestablish itself as a leading imperial power.

Beyond imperialist France seeking to strengthen its presence, what is Kenya’s economic dependence on foreign powers ? For example, how should we assess the Sino-Kenyan agreement of January 15 and the Chinese vice president’s visit in March, regarding the Mombasa-Nairobi railway line ?
Kenya has signed numerous economic partnership agreements and trade agreements with many countries including the USA, EU, UK, China and others. The Sino- Kenyan agreement of January 15 called the “Early Harvest” trade agreement allows for the duty-free entry of 98.2% of Kenyan exports to the Chinese market. This temporary arrangement aims to reduce Kenya’s trade deficit. While the economic relations between China and Kenya has been growing for the past 20 years, historically, the Western powers, as a whole, are still close economic partners of Kenya especially in the areas of tourism, agricultural exports, and multilateral development financing.

In our view, it matters little whether the debt is held by a single imperialist power or shared among several competitors ; it remains a submission to the globalized imperialist system, with all the consequences for the Kenyan people. What do you think ?
Yes, we agree, especially since loans from imperialist powers are meant to earn super-profits and usually come with onerous conditions and impositions.

What, then, are the contradictions with the other imperialist powers at play in the region—British, of course, but also American, Russian, and Chinese—who are seeking to take the place of the discredited old colonial powers ?
Russian and Chinese imperialists want to increase their economic and political presence in the region and build spheres of influence. The Western powers are taking steps to block this and maintain their hegemony. Once, the Western powers used Japan to supplant the Belt and Road Initiative of China but it failed. The Western powers obviously approve of France’s entry into East Africa in order to contain Chinese influence.

We are fundamentally anti-imperialist, not out of some kind of external solidarity, but because the proletariat of France and the oppressed peoples share the same enemy, here and there : French imperialism, its government, its monopolies, its history, and its culture. And so our struggle is the same, with the same revolutionary goal : to put an end to imperialist domination on the planet and build a liberated future for all the exploited. What do African revolutionaries expect from European revolutionaries and communists ?
In our experience, international solidarity was indispensable in our fight against colonialism before, and now, against imperialism. We seek and welcome all forms of political, moral and material support from our European comrades. As you said, imperialism is the common enemy of the proletariat in France and Europe and the oppressed and exploited people in the colonies and semi-colonies. We cannot defeat it without linking our arms.

Thank you to our Kenyan comrades for answering our questions. We are including some thoughts from a Senegalese comrade regarding this summit.

The transformations of French imperialism during this period are not merely manifested in its expansion into new spheres of influence (English-speaking or Portuguese-speaking regions, where it is not alone and must “share”), but rather as an alignment with other former colonial powers that do not carry the equivalent label of “Françafrique” and where priority is given to the economy. In other words, French imperialism prioritizes (no doubt reluctantly) the economic weight of Nigeria, Angola, and Kenya over certain attributes of power in the Sahel (military bases, the franc zone, diplomatic clout—such as votes at the UN, etc.). Although the recent military intervention in Benin, the nature of the relationship with Guinea, and the return to Chad are a caricatured continuation of Françafrique…