The recent election of Catherine Samba-Panza, former mayor of Central African Republic (CAR) capital Bangui to interim president of the beleaguered state is the latest development in a crisis that has seen a reported 1,000 plus fatalities this year alone, with around one million displaced. The election took place after incumbent Michel Djotodia was forced to resign on 9 January 2014 at an extraordinary summit of leaders of the Economic Community of Central African States.
The prevailing narrative in European media is one of religious conflict with direct roots in the March 2013 coup(that displaced then president François Bozizé. In what was the 5th coup to have taken place in CAR since independence in 1960, Bozizé was deposed by a coalition called Seleka (“alliance”) and is said to include Muslims, veterans of previous rebel movements and mutineers from the national army of the CAR. The opposition rebel forces are largely based in the north of the country. Seleka say their grievances stem from the failure of the Bozizé’s government to honour an agreement signed with them in 2007 and 2011 that mandated financial assistance to the dissidents. After deposing Bozizé Michel Djotodia named himself president.
In spite of president Djotodia later announcing the dissolution of Seleka there were allegations that they remained armed and carried out atrocities against the majority Christian population (estimates put this section of the population from half to over three quarters, with Muslims accounting for ten to twenty percent). In response the Christians formed self-defence groups called “Anti-balakas,” that also included Bozizé loyalists. It was the escalating violence between these factions, the narrative contends, that compelled former colonial power France to intervene, launching “Operation Sangaris” on 05/12/13, under the doctrine of “responsibility to protect (R2P).” It is worth noting that former president Bozizé appealed to France in December 2012 to help his government resist the advancing Seleka forces. France responded by deploying additional troops in order to protect its personnel in the country but refused to supply military forces to attack the Seleka rebels, thereby making the coup that at the time was on the horizon, inevitable. France’s apparent reluctance to assist was mirrored in the aftermath of the coup in the response of the “international community” whose standard platitudes about the need to ‘restore the rule of law’ made no mention of reinstating Bozizé.
An alternative narrative posits that after a decade in power François Bozizé was looking for way, somewhat belatedly, to decrease CAR’s dependency on France – enshrined in the Colonial Pact and accompanying a common currency; the Communuate Financiere de l’Afrique (‘CFA’) franc that compels former French colonies to deposited of 80% their foreign reserves in the “operations accounts” controlled by the French Treasury. As Luwezi Kinshasa, Secretary General of the African Socialist International in his uhurunews.com article Why are French troops occupying the streets of Bangui? asserts: ”It is clear that Francois Bozize has been ousted from power because he opened up Central Africa Republic resources such as oil and uranium to Chinese and South African companies, which in the long term will inevitably undermine French economic interest and control of CAR.”
The importance of this state of affairs is highlighted by Antoine Roger Lokongo in his Pambazuka article French complicity in the crisis in Central African Republic, where he quotes former French presidents François Mitterand and Jacques Chirac respectively: “Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century” and “without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power.”
In a period where thinking Afrikans commemorate the murders of freedom fighters such as Patrice Lumumba (17/01/1961) and Amilcar Cabral (20/01/1973), or events like the battle of Isandlwana (22/01/1879) the part of the narrative that appears to be absent is the Afrikan solution. As warrior scholar and academic Chinweizu put it: “The problem of the 21st century is the problem of Black African power: how to build it, and enough of it to stop the extermination of Blacks that is now in process, and to compel the respect of all humanity and guarantee the survival, dignity and sovereign autonomy of Pan-Africa.”
So we ask the question:
Central African Republic crisis: Religious Strife or Colonial Intrigue?
- Did France allow Bozizé to be overthrown?
- Was he punished for his deal with China?
- Was France’s intervention necessary to prevent further bloodshed?
- Without Afrika, would France be a “third [world] power”?
- Why don’t Afrikan countries break the Colonial Pact/CFA?
- Where are Afrika’s leaders the calibre of Lumumba and Cabral?
- Why is no Afrikan solution being put forward?
- How can “Black African power” be built?
- What is the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament’s (iNAPP)position on the CAR crisis?
- Could iNAPP build an “Black African power” base in the UK?
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Replies
As long as there is no Africa Unity, Africa will be a pray for the Europeans. France alone will do everything to sacrifice for its interest in Africa. Almost 35 African countries depend on France in almost everthing including the language. What can Africa do. The Europeans thrugh Berlin Conference weakined our countries by balkanizing them into tribal mini failed states which cannot survive by ithemselves. It is a shame that our African lealdlers although they see our plight are helpless. All I pray for is AFRICA UNITY.