Another post from commenter comrade Manuel Rodriguez from Venezuela.
Africa
Africa has been Europe’s backyard from several centuries ago. The great powers divided the African cake among themselves, with certain African territories going to specific European countries. I’m interested in France in this case. The classic style of colonialism have been replaced by neocolonialism, but the core mindset has not changed at all. Leaks and Freudian slips often gives us valuable and interesting insights about the West’s mentality towards Africa.
Suddenly, we saw a lot of media coverage about Russia and Africa, with France being in the background. Perhaps related to these two countries’ rivalry in Russia was the assassination attempt on Dmitri Sytyi recently, with speculations that French intelligence is responsible for it.
It would be good if you put a short summary in your blog about which African countries have historically been France’s property, and how much of it is relevant and carries on in to the present. I forgot the countries that currently on the spotlight, but Mali and Central African Republic are some of them.
I don’t know to what extent you might know which tactics France might be using in Africa. People say that France is supporting insurgent groups in Mali to sabotage the government and justify a possible intervention, for example.
The USSR was historically supportive of emancipatory movements in Africa. Whenever this was done out from authentic solidarity or mere national interests (hurting her European enemies) is irrelevant. The historical and social image persists for Africans.
The fall of the USSR meant the end of this sort of solidarity. Its not until recently that Russia started to actively help smaller countries as the USSR did.
