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Fuck French Imperialism Rule
(lemmy.tf)
That means fuck ECOWAS as a tool of the oppressors also. Critical support for ~~every~~ most coup(s) in Africa, and for the rights of Africans to demand the French and US militaries leave their country.
Critical Readings:
- Neocolonialism by Kwame Nkrumah.
- How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney.
- Rethinking Ownership of Development in Africa by T.D. Harper-Shipman.
Recommended readings:
- Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawaii Statehood by Dean Itsugi Saranillio.
- Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society by Eric A. Posner and E. Glen Weyl.
Hurr durr Western imperialism bad Russian imperialism good
Why don't we get France (a democracy) to pressure their leaders to set up free and fair elections then get the fuck out after they're done (simplifying things here as it's a slow process to not create a power vacuum) rather than supporting a like-for-like swap of France for Russia or Chinese control of the country through debt?
I'm not against the premise of the post, just the caption which reads like mindless Russophilia
Your comment about Chinese debt is uninformed - China holds a small percentage of total African debt and there's only 1 country (Zambia, iirc) where Chinese debt is even close to half of the debt.
Eurobond debt is far greater in almost every debt distressed African nation and is the debt that African leaders and bankers commonly cite as the problem.
The Chinese debt-trap story keeps being repeated by the US state department, but it does not reflect in any way the reality of African debt.
https://chinaglobalsouth.com/2023/07/13/graph-of-the-day-chinas-real-share-of-african-debt/
This article from the same source suggests China is at 54% of Zambia's debt, which is massive for a single country based off the other graphs: https://chinaglobalsouth.com/2023/05/31/how-zambias-debt-mix-is-forecast-to-evolve/
Yep! Zambia is the only country where the numbers don't immediately disprove the debt trap narrative.
Contrasting Zambia's numbers with the percentage of China's total African debt percentage only highlights how low it is in other African countries.
Nice strawman you’ve constructed there. Be a shame if someone set it on fire…
Oh no, are you having hallucinations? Because last I checked the majority of coups in former French Africa were Russia/Wagner backed so there's no strawman in sight.
You’re advocating for FRANCE to DICTATE TO AFRICAN COUNTRIES HOW THEY CAN BE SOVERIEGN. Do you not see the irony in that statement? When has France ever set up “Free and Fair Elections” in ANY of their vassal states or neo-colonies? Was it a free and fair election when they murdered democratically elected revolutionaries? Was it fair when they dictated the currency and exchange rate for all of their vassals? Who do the people support? Have you even looked? It’s not France lmao.
Maybe the coup should hold elections and invite international watchers. The colonial power being bad does not mean any action the subjects take is inherently justified. Each action needs to be morally weighed individually.
I could see that, however, what we’ve seen in the past in similar instances, is that the West will dictate who the eligible parties for the elections are, as they (the French and US, among others) did in Vietnam, among other places and times. So I also see why the revolutionary government would be wary of such an event. Especially given the only interactions the west has had with them so far has been to tell them to surrender power by X date or risk military action against them. It doesn’t seem that there’s any particular desire or effort towards anything other than immediate return of the compromised presidency, which clearly isn’t going to happen.
Nice strawman.
I'm saying that the French people make it be known (as they're so good at making things known to the government - probably the best in the world) that they don't want their government to continue abusing their former colonies, then hopefully that gets pushed up the agenda for prospective parties, who then go on to organise a transition to full self rule. If that had happened before we wouldn't be having this discussion, so not only are you constructing a strawman by using the acts of former French governments against a hypothetical future one, you're not even destructing it properly as you're just saying "look this happened before" rather than actually giving reasons as to why your hypothetical future French strawman government would go against the will of their voters to maintain control over their former colonies.
So again, you don’t support Africans taking their sovereignty, but you do support French citizens asking their government to give African countries sovereignty.
Why would the French government vote against the will of their constituency? I don’t know, maybe you should ask them why they forced through that retirement bill earlier this year.
This all neglects the fact, that it is not the French governments NOR the French peoples right to determine African sovereignty, it is Africans right and theirs alone. I have a feeling you would’ve supported the French over Sankara just because he gained power in a coup.
both have the same result, and if the former is the only option then fine, but the latter certainly results in less death and suffering than a violent coup might
Well, they’ve had 50 years to surrender their neo-colonies, you can’t fault Africans for getting tired of waiting and seizing their sovereignty themselves. Or you can, but you’d be an idiot.
I meant recent/ongoing, as I imagine the OP did in their caption, but I see how the confusion arose reading the comment in isolation.
That said, the Soviet Union did do their fair share of meddling in post-colonial Africa so it wouldn't shock me, but I can't remember which countries they were involved in off the top of my head so I couldn't say yes or no with any real confidence