The crisis between France, Burkina Faso and Niger is entering a phase of dramatization.
 | On the one hand, the populations continue to demonstrate in Niamey in front of the site where 1,500 French soldiers are stationed. On the other hand, retaliatory measures are taken by the French authorities, to try to change the situation, in a context where ECOWAS is struggling to deploy its troops as demanded by Paris. |
In a gesture of spite, and as a measure of retaliation, the Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs (DRAC), requested on September 14, on instructions from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the immediate cessation of any cultural cooperation project with nationals from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Paris explains this attitude by the closure of its consulates in these three countries. In reality, despite this closure, artists continued to benefit from entry visas into France, including through their embassies and those of other European Union countries, established in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. This last possibility has just been closed to them by new instructions from the French authorities.
Such a measure undermines tens of thousands of shows, which had already been scheduled and whose preparations had already begun. Hundreds of other shows, planned for the near or distant future, are also threatened, if not definitively compromised. It deconstructs a relationship that the artistic world has been striving to put in place for ages. Above all, it brings up to date the need to escape the trap of unequal relationships, through, initially, the diversification of cultural partnerships and secondly, the internalization within Africa itself, of artistic production and the organization of various shows, likely to introduce other peoples of Africa to the cultural diversity of the continent .
STUDENTS IN THE VICE OF RESTRICTIVE MEASURES
The flow of restrictive measures implemented by the French authorities does not only concern artists. Students are also targeted by the measures of the French authorities. In fact, beyond artists, the measure also applies to students. It targets six thousand seven hundred (6,700) of them, from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, currently enrolled in higher education establishments in France. Certainly the French authorities claim that the measure is only a “suspension” and only concerns students wishing to obtain new visas. However, we can imagine that all these learners and other trainees do not live on French soil and that at the time this measure was taken, most had not yet returned to France. Some have had to take vacations in their country of origin and in fact will no longer be able to return to France.
Scientific research programs are thus compromised. Mobility in a university environment, called into question. The excellence of development cooperation that the French authorities often boast about towards African countries has been seriously damaged.
Faced with the inequity and seriousness of such a situation, Paris maintains a double standard.
French President Emmanuel Macron said this Friday, September 15: "when we say that there will be no visa or that we cancel all the events that would be held in France with all the artists coming from Burkina Faso , from Mali or Niger: it’s false, it won’t happen.” On the ground, however, the reality is quite different. |  |
As nature abhors a vacuum, the diversification of cooperation with several actors on the international scene constitutes the best guarantee likely to avoid the mood swings which can arise from unbalanced relationships between dominating aim and desire for self-appropriation. and control of one's own destiny.
Comments