Will France finally really participate in the development of Africa?

The weekly economic chronicle of Bernard CHAUSSEGROS

We are all appalled to learn that men, women and children are dying in the Mediterranean or crossing the English Channel. We are even more shocked by the dramas that occur between Grande-Synthe and England, and we feel even more concerned when it comes to refugees who have been welcomed in accommodation centers set up in the region. Hauts de France.

We also know that many of them arrive in these slums at the end of their journey only to try to reach Great Britain, which they wrongly imagine to be a land of plenty, while the British who do not wish to welcome them and will do everything to turn them back.

We can, for example, cite what happens every week in Roscoff (a major freight port in northern Finistère), the base of a shipping company whose ferries take on trucks from all over the world, in which very regularly migrants try to slip under the tarps. You should know that when they disembark, in England or Ireland, these people in distress, often entire families, are deprived of their identity papers and put back on the first ferry to be brought back to Roscoff, at the expense of the local judicial authority to handle the matter, and has done so for decades. It is the great European brotherhood.

47.5% of migrants are from Africa

Like many French people, we are also scandalized by the conditions in which these human beings who have fled their different countries of origin for multiple reasons, find themselves herded like animals in filthy unsanitary conditions, despite all the commitment and goodwill of local associations. While refugees are often from the Middle East (Iraq, etc.) or Asian countries (Indonesia, Pakistan), the majority of migrants (47.5% were born in Africa).

We must ask ourselves about the reasons that push these people and families to leave their country and to take significant risks for their lives by wanting to join France. Such an attitude is explained by the conjunction of multiple causes, the lack of work, the absence of freedom, the lack of training for the younger generations, the trying climatic conditions, for example.

Between the difficulty of welcoming uprooted people, transplanted from one culture to another and almost unable to integrate or find a job in France, and a policy of helping to keep migrants in their country, there should be no hesitation.

This is the subject of this article. Because beyond humanist questions (what to do to help these people in precarious situations? and how to give them the means to live with dignity?) we come up against societal, political and religious considerations, we touch on planetary, economic , ecological and we must take into account the lack of training of migrants.

Of course, nothing is completely settled: not all migrants meet the same criteria, except probably one of them who seems to us to be structuring. These candidates for exodus feel compelled to leave their religious and ethnic geographical roots out of the necessity of survival.

The influx of migrants poses significant problems even in a country known for its values ​​of hospitality and tolerance

Rejection by part of the population

For most of them, integration is impossible. The very imperfect practice of the language, the ignorance of the ways of life and local customs, contribute to rejecting them in ghettos, and this all the more so as in the absence of regular identity documents and qualifications, they can neither to work, nor claim housing.

The migrants regroup and try to manage by all means. The weakest quickly fall under the control of mafia groups whose well-understood interest is to maintain this status quo of misery.

The inhabitants of the neighborhoods concerned cannot bear this intrusion into their daily lives of practices coming from an unknown world, these strange clothes and these religious practices whose richness the well-meaning intellectuals like to boast. And therein arises racism, which is nothing other than the reaction of fear of good people, sometimes manipulated, to see their way of life disappear in the long term. Little by little, in front of the unknown, the rejection of the other, anger, give way to racism and violence. Especially when, moreover, certain preachers come to proselytize, or as we saw two days ago, attack a procession and utter death threats against the faithful.

This is what one might call the internal contradictions of the French system of respect for others and for oneself, whatever the cost! We advocate tolerance, without realizing that we end up tolerating intolerance. These principles must be reciprocal or they cannot be.

Let's move on to the eternal question of social benefits fraud, on which the gazettes talk at all costs. But this creates an atmosphere conducive to conflict, withdrawal, ghettoization, resentment, and no doubt, one day or another, uprisings.

Because turning in on oneself creates unacceptable living conditions for many families, especially children. But for the state, the effect is much worse, you no longer enter the ghettos in uniform, which become areas of lawlessness. We know, in certain municipalities in the south of Paris, that fires are caused, for example on motor vehicles, to bring in the firefighters urgently and stone them at leisure.

Creation of a miserable social category

This is the whole result of a laissez-faire policy based on right-thinking. We accept everything, we tolerate everything, we park migrants with incompatible cultures, even between them and we end up with islands of misery, resourcefulness, trafficking of all kinds and withdrawal. We find ourselves in a world of lawlessness where even those who would like to get out of it, evolve, integrate, lose the possibility, as they lose their identity. They no longer have their free will, when they are not moreover radical preachers who, under the guise of mutual aid and charity, rally to them a youth in need of reference points and ideals.

This loss of identity is also felt by those who, perhaps for valid reasons, transplanted from a country in the Sahel or West Africa, find themselves without knowing the language, without understanding the way of life they are faced. However, unless they are armed with great courage, they will never find the means to approach the world of training and work.

It is not the few examples of literacy courses that are regularly described to us by very respectable leaders of associations that will change this visible face of the deleterious world in which migrants try to live.

They do not have any real ability to integrate, but the groups that take power within them have no interest in it. There is indeed in their dogmatic reading of the sacred texts an immense incompatibility between the practice of their religions and the teachings of their religious laws and the great principle of secularism of the French State of law.

We can only make the following observation: if many French people today think that these immigrants must be sent back to their country (and even worse for certain political commentators), the problem must undoubtedly be analyzed from a another angle, in this case from the angle of the happiness to which every human being should aspire.

What is the point of having been transplanted into another world if this one does not meet any of the expectations of one who has gone through a thousand dangers to find himself parked in filthy ghettos, rotten HLMs whose basements are used for all traffic, concealment of theft, narcotics, sex, and terrorism. One can easily imagine the disarray, especially of the women and children who have lost all their roots for such a daily hell.

The point is not meant to be outrageous: everyone's place, whoever we are, is where we have our roots, our habits, our culture, our landscapes, our friends and our ancestors. Why did these migrants leave everything for an illusory paradise (easy money, modernity, etc.). As we know, it is for reasons linked to the politics and economy of their countries, to climatic difficulties, and to corruption.

How to support African states in their development

In political terms

There are many dialogue processes between France and Africa. These dialogues provide everyone with an opportunity to help address common challenges. In general, led by philosophers, political scientists and historians, they bring together recognized and independent African personalities, actors in the field who are interested in the future of the relationship between Africa and France, and fortunately, also heads of state.

This idea started from the initiative of a dozen countries in 2021, Angola, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tunisia, which new states join regularly.

If I thought Frank would use Buddy correctly over even at all in important games I'd be higher on him.I just don'… https://t.co/ffoco11CQ4

— Parks Tue Jul 27 18:48:01 +0000 2021

The themes that are addressed in these consultation and study bodies are numerous and, of course, essential: gender equality, democracy and governance, official development assistance and its impacts, the preservation of biodiversity , new technologies, employability and youth mobility.

It should be remembered that recently the President of the French Republic met young Africans at a summit in order to see them express themselves on subjects as varied as democracy in their respective countries, but also the relations between their country and France. The French president was immediately questioned about the fate of migrants in the Mediterranean.

Coming from all over the continent, the participants wanted to sincerely make known their expectations and their frustrations on democracy and the relationship with France, directly challenging President Emmanuel Macron during this summit.

They even castigated “colonialism”, “arrogance” or “French paternalism”, and “hustled” the French president who defended his sincerity and denied any paternalism.

A young Malian made it clear that African youth do not need help, but cooperation. A young Senegalese, meanwhile, asked France to stop cooperating and collaborating with dictator presidents.

Since decolonization, often for economic reasons (energy deposits, minerals, etc.) but also for strategic reasons, France has invested heavily in African economies. But it is clear that these funds have undoubtedly contributed more to the rise to power of a certain business aristocracy close to the various heads of state, this state of affairs being largely favored by the division of the population into castes and under -ethnic groups.

The current strategy in the second half of the ^20th century should no longer be current today. The evolution of local populations towards impoverishment is the responsibility of African heads of state. Especially when the result translates into large waves of emigration, whether to flee tribal conflicts or to escape economic misery.

In environmental terms

Politics, war, economic misery are not the only reasons for waves of immigration. As everyone knows, the disorganization of climates, drought and the shortage of drinking water affect Africa more widely than anywhere else. Even if we should not minimize the ravages of cyclones, rising waters and floods, the absence of water, but also the difficulty of access to energy, as we know, make life impossible.

Following the COP 21 commitments, the sum of the current commitments puts the planet on a trajectory of +3°C, or even 3.4°C (source UN). "If we don't start taking additional action now, we will end up crying over a preventable human tragedy," warned Erik Solheim, director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). “The growing number of climate refugees stricken by hunger, poverty, disease and conflict will serve as incessant reminders of our failure. Science has shown that we need to act much faster,” he adds. Already in 2002, almost 20 years ago, President Chirac had been one of the first to sound the alarm by pronouncing these words now engraved in history: “our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere”.

With regard to the problem of hunger in the African world, rules should be enacted to protect the States, but the populations must also get involved. In West Africa, Chinese, Russian or European fishing boats are systematically plundering fishery resources. Sharks or groupers are threatened with extinction. The polluted ocean, the sea is a garbage can and countless waste covers the seabed. It would also be necessary to be able to involve the local populations in the preservation of their ecosystems, in the exploitation of their own resources and in the monitoring of their environment. But above all, African governments must modify their laws in the direction of greater severity and real constraint against looters and polluters.

Many specialists are looking into questions that cover a large part of African ecology, on the principle that all these actions will make it possible to find the natural balances conducive to a harmonious life in Africa.

This is the case of those who advocate that, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to deforestation and the degradation of our forests, we must launch reforestation campaigns with a view to sustainable agriculture, by associating to trees, fertilization of the soil by targeted crops. For example, we explain to them how to fertilize the soil with legumes planted in the alleys (natural green manure) in order to avoid slash-and-burn agriculture.

For renewable energies, there are many ideas, such as setting up mini-hydraulic and solar power stations, using the two resources of which the country abounds, in order to replace wood energy with clean and renewable energy. Some, rightly, advocate reducing world oil consumption in order to reduce its exploitation. Oil extraction degrades the environment at all levels: leaks pollute the ground and subsoil up to five meters deep, the rivers are contaminated, the ambient air is saturated with gas fumes.

The African populations are fully engaged in voluntary actions likely to make their countries attractive again and to prevent this loss of their vital energies. But they need help, for example to fight environmental criminals and bring them to justice.

This is particularly the case in Madagascar where the looting of natural resources has taken on a considerable scale for more than 10 years, for example for precious woods. This is what Ndranto Razakamanarina, President of the Voahary Gas Alliance says: "To put an end to this traffic, the first thing to do is to fight against widespread corruption, because nothing would be possible without the complicity authorities: judges, gendarmes, soldiers and even some elected officials profit from this traffic. […] It is a matter of political will. We must also dry up demand, which comes from Asia. For this, it is necessary to develop the notion of environmental crimes, and even the concept of the crime of ecocide. It would take an international court to judge them. »

Priorities for the development of the African continent

How can Africa finally experience real development? By focusing on demographics, health and education, women, security and language learning. Africa is multiple. It is made up of many different ethnic groups spread over more than fifty countries of unequal wealth, which have reached different degrees of evolution. The solution is therefore far from unique.

Africa has an ambition for the ^21st century, that of giving its children a future of peace and progress. And for that, she must set herself priorities, give herself the ardent obligation to observe discipline and rules.

Africa has 400 to 500 million poor people who do not even have electricity. And the increase in the African population will not be a panacea for the Africans themselves. Indeed, the children of Africa, if nothing changes, will then be "innumerable and miserable". It is the states that must succeed in establishing economic growth of the order of 5% per year, while lowering population growth to 1% per year. Difficult but necessary objective.

And Africa will only find the path to progress by giving itself the absolute priority of educating African women, half of its population. Working women “boost” economic growth. It is therefore imperative to considerably improve the employment rate of African women, which is currently too low.

Africa must abandon the monolingualism largely imposed by countries with an Arab culture. The Arabized countries of North Africa want their fellow citizens to be as disabled as they are. But many countries still use the languages ​​of the former colonizers: French, English or Italian.

Many people believe in this virtue: without bilingualism or, better still, trilingualism, Africa will remain cut off from the developed world, from its intellectual production and from innovation.

A sector where France can mobilize its energies

The future of French audiovisual is right to rely on French-speaking Africa. In this sector, the potential demand for materials and content is immense. France could play a major role in this if companies know how to reinvent their economic model.

Heavy threats hang over the future of the French audiovisual sector. Perfectly diagnosed, as shown for example by the study of the “media and brands” chair of Mines ParisTech directed by Olivier Bomsel, the balance on which the French audiovisual ecosystem was founded is deeply challenged by digital technology. Among the solutions mentioned, the creation of new outlets for our industry is one of the most important. The penetration of new markets is indeed the key to the development of new revenues, the only ones capable of counterbalancing the inevitable decline in TV funding. Image manufacturers must realize that Africa (and especially its French-speaking part) represents an immense opportunity that they must seize, with the active help of the State.

This is an opportunity for the whole sector! The African continent is experiencing, even if at a different pace from that of Europe, a strong diffusion of digital technologies. The demand potential for materials and content is immense. French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa represents 200 million inhabitants. We know that in 2040, 40% of adolescents in the world will be African. Such a population is likely to adopt more easily and spread its enthusiasm for new technologies. The arrival of digital technology in Africa is an opportunity for the entire sector, from service to distribution and production. Everything is to be done, infrastructures to be made permanent, ADSL to be broadcast outside the big cities, local production fabric to be developed, advertising market to be stabilized, etc. Each of the links in the sector can find material in Africa to disseminate their know-how in an interesting exchange where everyone will find their fair salary.

The growth potential of the African continent is immense. As already noted in a 2014 report by the World Bank, this growth must, to be strong and profitable for the poorest, be based on job-creating investments both in the industrial field and in that of technological innovation. . Contrary to some simplistic visions suggesting starting with low-tech products before moving upmarket, the future of the African continent will in reality pass above all through the development of the digital economy in general and of the image sector. specifically.

Expectations are very high in Africa to consume fresh "video" content. The dazzling development of the use of smartphones as portable image receivers reflects the extraordinary desire for communication and exchanges among consumers. Importing programs designed, produced and first consumed in Europe cannot be a satisfactory solution. The contents will only become really attractive if they are really in tune with local demand, which implies that they be thought out and created on site. This implies that a real industrial sector of the image develops in Africa, which can, in the long term, fully produce beneficial economic effects on local growth.

Moreover, there can be no sustainable economic development if it is not based on digital technology, which generates so many economies of scale and externalities, which brings us back to a central subject, the questions of financing. In African countries, there are not enough serious advertisers to contribute their share to projects, the main obstacle to the emergence of an industrial ecosystem for the production of content. This situation can be explained by a long tradition of control of media content and funding by the powers that be. With digital technology, the media will be able to suddenly free themselves from public power, which will raise the question of their economic balance in a new way.

France is not present enough in Africa, especially with this mindset of wanting to support States in their development. While it had participated in the establishment of the sector from the beginning of the 2000s, France has been gradually marginalized by countries such as China and the United States. The setbacks of some of our companies have left traces in the mentalities of our entrepreneurs. While the French image industry fundamentally lacks growth drivers, the time has come for a winning commercial comeback in an area that is once again opening up to all possibilities.

But to succeed in such a bet, particularly with the objective of supporting local initiatives, the economic model must be reinvented by questioning the means to be implemented. The particular situation of the African continent, where the States do not traditionally have a sufficiently structuring role as in Europe, requires that the economic model be reinvented! Thus, it is necessary to replace the French error of the “parachuting” of subsidies by research and the implementation of local partnerships. Large French groups already present in Africa, such as Orange or Bolloré can and above all must make it possible to introduce into the sector a myriad of innovative companies, much smaller, but in great complementarity through projects.

France's cultural and historical proximity to Africa should make it possible to set up long-term partnerships across the entire image chain with local companies that must be supported in their development and deployment, like what Canal Plus has been able to do successfully. However, the local State will have to play its role by contributing to the legal structure of the market and by coordinating the financing of local businesses. France, for its part, will have to bring its assistance, either technical by an accompaniment of the CSA, or financial by the intervention of the BPI.

For France itself, what is called “the French cultural exception” is indeed a real asset for its influence. The image sector can prove that the French economy can be exported. But for such a result, our companies will finally have to know how to play the card of strategic alliances and the State, for its part, will have to adopt a clear vision of its role. For example, it would be particularly welcome for the CNC to design an ambitious policy aimed at French-language programs in Africa. The French “cultural exception” could really cease to be a subject of stigmatization at the international level to become a real asset of influence.

From now on, the media must implement a wide range of means of financing (product placement, sponsorship of content by brands, etc.). Such know-how cannot be improvised. This is a major opportunity for the major French telecommunications and audiovisual production groups which are already established on the continent and which are the only ones to already have local relays, financial resources and skills spread over the whole value chain, to boost the development of the digital economy in Africa. On a continental scale, our French champions can quickly become essential promoters of African economic development.

Ambition is therefore much more important than the simple commercial success of our companies since this economic dynamic will create jobs, vectors of hope for the younger generations and will guarantee the essential emergence of a real middle class. It is at this price that the question of migrations will finally be able to be considered calmly and rationally, because the dynamic and hopeful youth will finally find at home the means to fulfill themselves, rather than going into debt with smugglers for embarking on makeshift rafts, with the only way out of dying there or ending up in an unhealthy and cold ghetto.

France still has, thanks to the vast French-speaking part of the African continent, an immense asset to put forward. Our industrial flagships, on the lookout for all sources of growth, can find valuable ground for expansion there. To do this, they must quickly seize the opportunities that present themselves by daring now to go digital for Africa, and in Africa.

Bernard Chaussegros