France Without Africa Is Not a Power

Without African raw materials, cheap labor, captive markets, and obedient elites, France would not be a global power. No uranium from Niger. No oil contracts. No logistics monopolies. No military bases. No leverage.

By Ali Dan Ismael and Kemi Ashu

The lie is finished. Let us stop pretending. France is not losing influence in Africa because Africans are becoming hostile. France is losing influence because Africans are waking up. For decades, Paris ruled Africa without ruling it. Control without responsibility. Power without accountability. Extraction without development. That system has a name. It is called Françafrique. And today, it is collapsing in full view of the world. Ambazonia has known this truth for years.

Why France needed Africa weak

The lie was simple. France claimed to bring stability, democracy, and development. The reality is simpler. France needed Africa to remain weak. Without African raw materials, cheap labor, captive markets, and obedient elites, France would not be a global power. No uranium from Niger. No oil contracts. No logistics monopolies. No military bases. No leverage.

Selective outrage and silent massacres

That is why coups are condemned only when French interests are threatened. That is why dictators are tolerated when they obey. That is why massacres in Southern Cameroons are ignored. This is not diplomacy. It is domination.

Cameroon is not sovereign

They call the war in Southern Cameroons an internal crisis. That is a lie. A government that does not control its money, its security, or its foreign policy is not sovereign. French Cameroon operates inside a system where monetary policy is outsourced, military doctrine is supervised, and political survival depends on external approval. Such a state has no moral or legal authority to govern another people. Ambazonia is not breaking away from a sovereign nation. Ambazonia is walking away from a colonial mechanism.

Money is power and France holds the tap

Money is power. Across Francophone Africa, currencies are fixed, reserves are extracted, profits are repatriated, and development is postponed forever. This is not accident. It is design. When you do not control your currency, you cannot plan. When you cannot plan, you cannot industrialize. When you cannot industrialize, you must export raw materials and import poverty. That is why roads remain unfinished. That is why electricity never arrives. That is why education collapses. Dependency is profitable, just not for Africans.

ECOWAS and the hypocrisy of order

When Mali and Burkina Faso were bleeding from terrorism, there was silence. When Niger threatened French uranium interests, there were sanctions, blockades, and war threats. That tells you everything. Regional organizations talk democracy but enforce obedience. They punish defiance, not injustice. They defend systems, not people. Legitimacy in this order does not come from law. It comes from alignment.

The Sahel is refusing humiliation

The Sahel is not chaos. It is refusal. The Sahel states are saying something very clear. We will no longer rent our sovereignty. We will no longer trade dignity for approval. We will no longer die to protect foreign contracts. This is not perfection. It is rebellion against humiliation. And Ambazonia belongs to this same historical moment.

Why Ambazonia terrifies the system

Ambazonia terrifies the system because it threatens the lie that Africa has no choice. It proves that colonial borders are not sacred. It exposes proxy states for what they are. That is why the repression is brutal. That is why the silence is loud. That is why unity is preached while justice is denied.

Truths that cannot be buried

There are truths that cannot be unsaid. You cannot decentralize power while centralizing money. You cannot preach unity while enforcing inequality. You cannot govern others when you cannot govern yourself. France’s decline in Africa is not a tragedy. It is accountability arriving late. And Ambazonia’s message is now impossible to bury. A system built on extraction has no future. A people who choose sovereignty cannot be stopped.

Ali Dan Ismael and Kemi Ashu