Will Hollande’s tough stance succeed?

Mobhare Matinyi, Washington DC. The Citizen, Tanzania.  Thursday, 18 October 2012 21:32

Last weekend the recently-elected French President François Hollande, who calls himself “Mr Normal”, took advantage of the summit of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF) in Kinshasa to demonstrate to African leaders that he is not going to be “Mr Normal” to them. The French leader was a bit tough in his words and actions.

Hollande, a West European socialist with no experience in foreign policy, first met with the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, before the opening of the summit and when asked how the talks went, he replied: “I drove the point home in frank and direct talks with Kabila”. The point he was referring to was what he called the human rights situation and democracy in the DRC noting that he was “very angry” with it.

During the summit Hollande told African leaders and their representatives that he expects a new type of relationship with African countries, calling it “state to state relations” meaning the decades-long style in which Paris was only concerned with the man in-charge of the country, is over. He added that he wants Paris-Africa relations to be based on truthfulness, transparency and mutual respect.

After the summit he invited the main opponent of President Kabila, the aging longtime politician, Etienne Tshisekedi, to have talks with him assuring him that, “France stands with the defenders of human rights.” Hollande then told the press after the meeting that: “Speaking French also means speaking about human rights because the rights of man were written in French.”

When asked about the meeting, Tshisekedi said that he was very satisfied with his “brother Hollande”, perhaps referring to the fact that his own party, Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) and Hollande’s Socialist Party are both members of the London-based Socialist International, the worldwide ideological organisation of social democratic, socialist and labour parties.

The French News Agency (AFP) and Radio France International (RFI) made fun of the whole drama in the DRC coming up with the headline: “Francophonie summit ends as Hollande ruffles Kabila’s feathers.” Customarily, African leaders don’t like to see a visiting head of state giving sometime to opposition leaders and sharing sympathy as Hollande did with Tshisekedi, the man who believed he won the December 2011 presidential elections.

In fact, as the two brotherly leaders met indoors, outside police were chasing Tshisekedi’s supporters who wanted to make it a big deal. Tshisekedi, who at nearly 80 is old enough to be a grandfather to the 41-year old Kabila, made interesting headlines after the election when he called his close friend to swear him in as president at his residence. Thereafter Kabila’s soldiers surrounded the house effectively placing him under unofficial house arrest for some time.

But all was not lost for Kabila as Hollande and the summit agreed to back the DRC’s territorial integrity in the face of an insurgency in the eastern part of the country, a declaration that made Rwanda unhappy. The summit also supported the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for intervention in Mali, urged solutions to the disturbing situations in Madagascar and Guinea Bissau, and begged for good governance in natural resources and increased efforts to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

Frankly, Hollande seems determined to end the slave-master relations between France and African countries and thus, establish real trade relations between them, albeit with a price to pay. The new French leader wants to provide aid through civil society groups and non-governmental organisations, a move not popular in Africa as governments always want to pocket foreign aid money.

In previous decades some leaders in French-speaking Africa have denigrated their people by acting in the interests of France against their nation’s interests such as selling crude oil to France at discounted prices, allowing French companies to take home every single cent of the profit from their investments in Africa, and illegally funding presidential campaigns of some French politicians. In return, the French-speaking dictators got protection from Paris but if Hollande means what he is saying, then this privilege is set to end.

Although attendance was noticeably poor, the Kinshasa summit was still the perfect place for Hollande to spell out his foreign policy for Africa. Only a fifth of the 75 expected heads of state and government showed up. The Paris-headquartered International Organisation of the Francophonie has 56 member states including non-French speaking countries like Ghana and 19 states with observer status such as Mozambique.

With little experience and the disadvantage of being a leftist, President Hollande is not expected to be a popular leader at a time when several economic and foreign policy challenges are threatening the prestige of the French nation.
Let us see what he does with Africa, but certainly his approach will not be popular with African leaders.