Loan is to consent to helplessness. And even rejoice. In Dakar, we must look at the expression of General Ianni who salutes the lifting of the Senegalese flag on the Geille camp, in the center of the capital where generations of porpoises, legionaries and committed followed one another. Is this a smile, this grin? Should we see irony, relief, discomfort? It is the French military presence in West Africa that the general came to bury. One hundred and fifty years old to war, gendarmer, patrol, support and form, a whole epic with its shadows and lights which ends Subito.
After the Central African Republic that we had abandoned without turning around, the putschists of Mali, Niger and Burkina chased us to install the Africa Corps of Kremlin, Chad fought us suddenly, Côte d’Ivoire claimed the keys to the barracks of the 43rd naval infantry regiment, Gabon has transformed the Camp de Gaulle into a military academy …
In three years, a Bérézina under the sun. Senegal’s turn. Dakar had been the first French colony in West Africa and the capital of the AOF. This is the last permanent basis where French were still stationed. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected by denouncing this attack on Senegalese sovereignty. Léopold Sédar Senghor never said that. Nor any of his successors.
There is only one tricolor enclave on the other side of the continent, in Djibouti, which the French share with the Italians, the Spanish, the Germans, the Japanese, alongside the Chinese and American camps. France, one of the others. Neither more nor less. Always less.
“Laziness has reduced our destiny to Europe”
For the historic restitution ceremony of the Geille camp and the air base, General Ianni wore his Saharan well ironed with his deserted color Képi. In the photos, her outfit appears to be obsolete alongside African centuries strapped in their new bottle -green uniforms with American caps which run them strangely with several floors of laurels.
French is a general of division, three stars. The Senegalese chief of staff sports a whole constellation. He dominates his visitor to the head, shoulders and stars. Above all, he wears sunglasses that give him the impassive air of a uncle Macoute. The image of authority at a time when history sounds. By his side, the French keeps a delighted air. We wonder why.
The official speech claims that opens “A new step in Franco-African cooperation”. Returning to Paris, the general became awarded to another theater of operation, the Studios of France 24. The channel was founded to speak in priority to Africa. Now what is the point of? When he was Colonel, Pascal Ianni served as spokesperson for the Ministry of the Armed Forces. He kept the reflexes. He declines the argument of the Élysée: “France does not back down in Africa! She reorganizes … “
Lack of vitality
The head of command of the French army in Africa no longer commands anyone if not his camp assistance, his driver and his Parisian bureaucracy. The end of the colonial gives him an end of career. No one can blame him. Nor to make believe that Paris has decided what Africans impose on us. To deny that their rejection is the consequence of our arrogance. To accuse Russia, universal scapegoat.
But the painful truth to face is that France no longer has the resources to be heard. Before being a financial problem, it is a lack of courage and vitality. The laziness has reduced our destiny to Europe, our ambition to the holidays and the army to parade on the Champs-Élysées.
