/08

Black France
A three-part series looking at the history of France’s black community and their long struggle for recognition.
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201382894144265709.html

Between one and five million French citizens claim African or Caribbean heritage. These numbers are, however, estimates, as population censuses do not recognise race.

For over a century, black immigrants, though never officially identified as different, were treated as ’others’.

Even today, of France’s 577 members of parliament, only five are black.

This three-part series tells the story of blacks in France - a long history of segregation, racism, protest, violence, culture and community building - from the turn of the 20th century until the present day.

▻http://bcove.me/vnwiugfp
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The French African Connection - Special series - Al Jazeera English
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201387113131914906.html

The last episode of this series outlines France’s gradual loss of power in its former colonies - some called it reverse colonisation; others called it independence.

African leaders, well aware of France’s need for their countries’ resources, adopted the same manipulation tactics once used on them.

So, after supporting a war in Biafra, overthrowing several presidents, collapsing Guinea’s economy and bribing leaders to support its interests, France started to lose the control that it once exercised in Africa. 

Some African leaders insisted on selecting French ministers and ambassadors. And presidents like Omar Bongo of Gabon and Mamadou Tandja of Niger realised that they could leverage their natural resources to sway French decision-making.

Bongo threatened to sign drilling contracts with the Americans when Elf temporarily closed its Port-Gentil wells. And Tandja claimed he would hand over control of Niger’s largest uranium mine to the Chinese if France refused to agree to an increase in the price of uranium.

Protests against France escalated to violence in several countries.

Although France’s control over its former colonies had weakened, the colonies still needed French investors - and this reliance allows some networks to persist today.