Africa is a continent where the people are becoming more and more dexterous in managing their transition from the previous to the present century. The youth of Africa, in particular the women, are leading the drive towards modernisation. Just as K-pop from South Korea has entered the world, so will A-pop from Africa do so in coming years. Even today, artistes of African ancestry are proving a feast of music and acting, something that they have done for decades. It has been a painful and in many ways torturously slow process to overcome the centuries of bondage that so much of Africa endured, including the crime of slavery. The continent is awash in human and natural resources, and it was an affirmation of its potential that the other G-20 members accepted the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2023 to make the African Union a full member, on par with the European Union. France, Britain, Belgium, Germany and other European countries looted—and there cannot be a more accurate way of describing such a process—of their wealth. While India stood by him and the African National Congress that he led, Nelson Mandela was jailed for decades. However, when freedom for South Africa became inevitable and he was released as the new leader, there was no rancour in his behaviour. He sought what Martin Luther King Jr had earlier sought, a world where people of different hues live peaceably with each other. Such is the fibre of the people of the African continent.
It came as an unpleasant shock in such a setting to hear President Emmanuel Macron of France imply that the people of Africa owed their freedom to the beneficence of France. The fact is that it was no longer possible for the French colonial authorities to retain control over such territories. Macron has probably never visited Algeria or France, where local populations rose in revolt against their colonial masters. In Vietnam, the French sought to continue their hold over a proud people, but were defeated by forces led by Ho Chi Minh and were forced to flee. Unfortunately for the US and for the Vietnamese, Washington entered from where Paris had retreated, causing the loss of countless lives and destruction. It speaks for the quality of the Vietnamese people that Hanoi is once again friendly with Washington, just as it has been with New Delhi, which supported the Vietnamese people against foreign control from the start. Together with President Biden, Prime Minister Starmer and Chancellor Scholz, Macron has been a cheerleader and facilitator of the senseless war being waged by Ukraine in a lost effort at recovering lands that had slipped from its control in 2014. It is clear that Macron undergoes a suspension from reality in some of his statements and policies, Ukraine being an example. The French are a wonderful people and France a delightful country to visit. The present generation of citizens do not deserve to have the stain of a colonial past cloud their relations with Africa. Indeed, the unfortunate and condescending remarks of Macron have come as a boon to China, which wants Europe out of Africa. He needs to correct the impression that has been gathered that the present occupant of the Elysee Palace is a supporter of colonialism. President Macron owes that to not just the people of Africa but the citizens of France.