Published on May 30, 2012 by iraniam100 ; The head of the African Union, Boni Yayi, met with Francois Hollande as hundreds of millions hope that the new French president will honor his promise to end the neo-colonial empire known as Françafrique.
Nicolas Sarkozy made essentially the same pledge, only to produce the same scandals and military interventions which have defined France's Africa policy for the last 50 years.
A good place for Hollande to start would be to stop giving French recognition to leaders who win disputed elections, such as in Gabon or Ivory Coast. These beholden heads of state privilege French interests and corporations, which easily overwhelm local start-ups.
Fiscal transparency is another area of need, to answer long-standing questions on bribery, money laundering and to explain why many African leaders own millions in Parisian properties despite running poor countries. French soldiers are already stationed in Ivory Coast, Chad, Gabon, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic and Djibouti, but Hollande told Yayi that France will not intervene in Mali's civil war. For so many decades France's politicians have paved the way for the economic exploitation of Africa, but the question now is: Will Hollande be any different? Many say they are hopeful, but not naïve.
