There is a new twist to the many recent “anti-France” campaigns in Africa as hundreds of protesters in South Africa marched Wednesday to the French embassy in Pretoria.
The demonstrators, under the aegis of the South African Economic Freedom Fighters party, demanded that France leave Africa.
The protest comes as the continent marked the 59th anniversary of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity.
The spokesperson of the EFF, Leigh-Ann Mathys said the European powerhouse, France still maintains a strong stand in its former colonies despite political independence.
“It’s Africa day, we know that Africa was colonized, there’s only one country on the continent that was not colonized and that is Ethiopia. France still has its dirty little fingers deeply stuck in its former French colonies”
Earlier in the week, in another African country, Gabon the government was forced to stop a protest that was meant to take place Tuesday. The lingering “Anti-France” protest has stretched beyond Gabon and taken to France. In March, protesters disrupted an auction right before a 19th-century carved mask was sold for €4.2 million, despite accusations that it was “stolen goods” in Montpellier in the South of France.
Mali, another African country that until recently has been a strong ally with France has had a toxic relationship with the European so much that Bamako broke defence relations with Paris.
The party leader Julius Malema urged France to exit the economic, political, cultural, and military affairs of the continent:
“French colonialism in the African continent continues to be the most brutal, cruel, and devilish form of colonialism in the African continent, ” he said.
“We, as a generation of Freedom Fighters, reject, and condemn the fact that decades after the declaration of the so-called independence of formerly colonized territories, colonizers continue to maintain a colonial and neo-colonial relationship with African countries which are supposed to be free from colonial control.” Malema said.