Africa is engraved in French memory, in culture, in history, and in the identity of France, and this is a strength and a pride that I want to cultivate, one that I want to carry as an asset of France, for France and for Africa in our relationship with the world. France has an unbreakable historical link with Africa, steeped in suffering and heartbreak, but also so often in fraternity and mutual aid. I am from a generation of French people for whom Africa is neither a cumbersome past nor a neighbor among others. ![]() As he explained, a new era of France-Africa relations had arrived, and the two sides needed to both reinvent their political relationships and acknowledge their shared histories. Instead of claiming he would turn the page on France’s Africa policy, as most French presidents before him had, he said there was no page to turn: France did not have a grand strategy for its diplomacy on the continent anymore. On a November 2017 diplomatic tour to Africa early in his first term, French President Emmanuel Macron had a surprising message for university students in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. For Macron’s ambitions for French relations with African countries to keep their momentum, the president and his team must take an earnest look at what has worked well and what can still be improved. Meanwhile the French president’s attempts to deepen economic, people-to-people, and security ties in more equitable ways have fallen short of lofty expectations, with past practices proving harder than expected to jettison. In certain cases, Macron’s own nationalistic appeals during his recent reelection bid have appeared to undercut his attempts to make amends for France’s troubling colonial history. Bureaucratic inertia and stovepiping in French foreign policy circles have at times meant that implementation of these policies has lagged. While Macron’s efforts have created an opening for renewed relationships, this pivot has not been as seamless as he had hoped. Cohen received his PhD in political science and international relations from Sciences Po and lectured on international relations and on African politics at Sciences Po and the Sorbonne. He is interested in the political economies of West Africa, Central Africa, and Latin America and is currently doing research on the role of professionals and companies in crafting new relationships between states. Corentin Cohen is a research fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.
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