Rwanda + 30 years

 

Macron says France and allies 'could have stopped' the Rwandan genocide

President Emmanuel Macron believes France and its Western and African allies "could have stopped" Rwanda's 1994 genocide, but lacked the will to halt the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, the presidency has said.

Issued on: 05/04/2024 - 10:45

   

2 min

Photos from the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. Rwanda will on Sunday begin commemorations to mark 30 years since the Tutsi genocide. © Ben Curtis / AP

By:Melissa Chemam with RFI

Macron expressed the view in a video message to be published on Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, which was carried out by Hutu extremists and lasted 100 days.

He will not be travelling to Rwanda to attend commemorations in Kigali alongside President Paul Kagame.

France will instead be represented by Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné.

Macron's message will emphasise that "when the phase of total extermination against the Tutsis began, the international community had the means to know and act", a French presidential official said, asking not to be named.

The president believes that at the time, the international community already had historical experience of witnessing genocide with the Holocaust in World War II and the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I.

Macron will say that "France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, did not have the will" to do so, the official added.

Fr           French President Emmanuel Macron and Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the Presidential Palace in Kigali, Rwanda, on 27 May 2021. REUTERS 

'One more step'

Macron had already recognised France's "responsibilities" in the genocide during a visit to Rwanda in 2021 – adding only the survivors could grant "the gift of forgiveness".

Since he was elected in 2017, Macron commissioned a report on France’s role before and during the genocide and ordered the country’s archives to be opened to the public. 

The Ibuka France association, which brings together survivors of then genocide living in France, said Macon's message was an “important step”.

Its president, the historian Marcel Kabanda, told RFI: "It is reassuring for us to go to the 30th commemoration with this declaration."

Kabanda also called on France to go further by apologising to the victims of this genocide, and open the way to reparations – even if only through a symbolic gesture.

French historian Vincent Duclert, who chaired the commission responsible for shedding light on the role of France in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994, told RFI that Macron's speech was an example of ongoing efforts to recognised what happened.

He said France, which had military forces on the ground in Rwanda, could have intervened in April 1994.

The troops and other western troops had "all the means to do so" and organise "evacuation operations", he told RFI.

"This is the way to resolve past traumas."

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Senegal has a new president

 

The day Macky Sall handed over power to Bassirou Diomaye Faye as Senegal's 5th President

Left-winger Bassirou Diomaye Faye has been sworn in as Senegal's youngest president this Tuesday, pledging reforms to build on his stunning election win just 10 days after he was released from prison.   

 - Melissa Chemam

The ceremony took place in the new town of Diamniadio, near the capital Dakar, from 11.40 GMT, before Faye headed for the presidential palace, for the formal handover of power with President Macky Sall.

He then held his first official presidential speech from 1pm.

"Before God and the Senegalese nation, I swear to faithfully fulfil the office of President of the Republic of Senegal," the 44-year-old said before hundreds of officials and several African heads of state at an exhibition centre in the new town.

He also vowed to "scrupulously observe the provisions of the Constitution and the laws" and to defend "the integrity of the territory and national independence, and to spare no effort to achieve African unity".

International support

Among the guests were notably Nigeria's  President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, attended the ceremony, as well as the leaders of the juntas in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which have claimed to break away from West Africa's regional economic group Ecowas.

After three tense years and deadly unrest in the traditionally stable nation, Faye's democratic victory was hailed from Washington to Paris, via the African Union and the European Union.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday spoke with the president-elect by telephone and "underscored the United States' strong interest in deepening the partnership," between their two countries, the State Department said.

Faye has voiced admiration for international leaders like former US president Barack Obama and South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

He also seeks to bring Sahel's military-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger back into the fold of Ecowas.

Commonly known as Diomaye, or "the honourable one" in his local Serer language, he won the March 24 election with 54.3 percent of the vote.

The remarkable turnaround came after the government had dissolved last July his party, Pastef, co-founded with Sonko in 2014, before Sall decided, in February, to straightforwardly postpone the election.

A new generation 

The 44-year-old pan-Africanist becomes the youngest leader ever in charge of Senegal, and the youngest currently in power in Africa.

He has never before held an elected office before.

Faye's campaign was launched whilst he was still in detention.

He was one of a group of political opponents freed from prison 10 days before the March 24 presidential ballot under an amnesty announced by Sall who had tried to delay the vote.   

The former tax inspector has become the West African state's fifth president since independence from France in 1960.

He is also the first to openly admit to a polygamous marriage.

Faye is a practising Muslim from a humble background, with two wives and four children, representing a new generation of youthful politicians.

Economic challenges

Working with his popular mentor and founder of his party, Ousmane Sonko, who himself was barred from the election, Faye declared their priorities in his victory speech as national reconciliation, easing a cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption.

The anti-establishment leader has vowed to restore national sovereignty over key assets such as the oil, gas and fishing sectors.

Faye also wants to leave the regional CFA franc, which he sees as a French colonial legacy, and to invest more in agriculture with the aim of reaching food self-sufficiency.

But Faye has also reassured investors that Senegal "will remain a friendly country and a sure and reliable ally for any partner that engages with us in virtuous, respectful and mutually productive cooperation." 

He is expected to unveil his government on 5 April, though he does not have a majority in the National Assembly and will have to look to build alliances to pass new laws, or call a legislative election, which will become an option from mid-November.

• Podcast: RFI spoke to author and economist Ndongo Samba Sylla in the capital Dakar
  
  
• Bassirou Diomaye Faye becomes Senegal's youngest president ever

Adieu Maryse Condé...

 

Paris, 2 avr 2024 (AFP) - L'écrivaine guadeloupéenne Maryse Condé, décédée dans la nuit de lundi à mardi à l'âge de 90 ans, était l'une des grandes voix de la littérature francophone, qui a abordé dans une trentaine de livres l'Afrique, l'esclavage et les multiples identités noires.

   Jusqu'à la fin de son adolescence, Maryse Condé disait ne pas réaliser qu'elle était noire. Elle n'avait jamais entendu parler de l'esclavage ni de l'Afrique.

   Sa mère, institutrice, interdisait le créole, au profit du français, dans la maison familiale de Pointe-à-Pitre en Guadeloupe, où Maryse Boucolon naît le 11 février 1934, benjamine d'une fratrie de huit.

   Ce n'est qu'à Paris, où elle arrive à 19 ans comme élève au lycée Fénelon, qu'elle comprend que la couleur a un sens. Ce sont les années 50: les colonies s'émancipent, les intellectuels noirs sont en pleine effervescence.

   Elle rencontre l'écrivain martiniquais et homme politique Aimé Césaire qui lui ouvre les yeux: "Je comprends que je ne suis ni Française, ni Européenne. Que j'appartiens à un autre monde et qu'il me faut apprendre à déchirer les mensonges et à découvrir la vérité de ma société et de moi-même", se remémore-t-elle dans un documentaire, "Une voix singulière", qui lui est consacré en 2011.

   Jeune adulte, elle rencontre un journaliste haïtien qui la quitte en apprenant sa grossesse. Mère célibataire d'un petit garçon, elle doit renoncer à Normale Supérieure. En quête de respectabilité, elle épouse trois ans plus tard, Mamadou Condé, un apprenti comédien guinéen.

   L'Afrique devient la destination impérative dans cette quête de ses origines. Avec leur première fille et son garçon, ils s'installent dans la Guinée tout juste indépendante de Sékou Touré.

   Elle vit une nouvelle passion avec un autre Haïtien à Paris, puis retourne en Guinée auprès de son mari, alcoolique, où elle attend une deuxième puis une troisième fille. A Conakry, la vie est dure: "Quatre enfants à nourrir et à protéger dans une ville où il n'y a rien, c'était pas facile".

   

   - Etrangère en Afrique -

   

   Dans "La Vie sans fards", autobiographie publiée en 2012, elle confie qu'"elle n'arrive pas à devenir Africaine". Parle d'un "fossé entre les Antillais et les Africains". Meurtrie d'être restée "l'étrangère" malgré sa peau noire, elle commence à comprendre Frantz Fanon, un des fondateurs du tiers-mondisme, et sa thèse sur le mythe de la négritude.

   Son mariage est un échec, elle fuit au Ghana avec ses enfants puis au Sénégal, où elle se marie au début des années 80 avec un professeur britannique blanc. Richard Philcox sera son traducteur.

   Ce n'est qu'à l'âge de 42 ans, après douze années d'épreuves en Afrique et grâce à son nouveau compagnon, qui lui apporte "calme et sérénité", qu'elle se met à écrire.

   En 1976, elle publie "Hérémakhonon", puis "Ségou" (1984-1985), un best-seller sur l'empire bambara au XIXe siècle au Mali. De sa volonté de "réhabiliter l'image bafouée des Noirs" et de retrouver ses origines naissent "Moi, Tituba, sorcière noire de Salem" (1986) et "La vie Scélérate" (1987).

   Puis elle abandonne les reconstitutions historiques avec "Traversée de la mangrove" (1989), "Célanire cou-coupé" (2000) ou "Histoire de la femme cannibale" (2005).

   A New York, où elle vit 20 ans, elle ouvre à Columbia University un centre d'études francophones. Elle y enseigne une "littérature en français qui ne parle pas de la France". Elle est très connue aux États-Unis.

   Cette femme massive aux cheveux coupés courts refuse alors tout sentiment de fierté régionale, raciale ou communautaire. "Il est grand temps de dire que l'endroit dont nous venons n'a pas tellement d'importance. Pour nous, Antillais, ce qui compte, c'est le peuple que nous sommes devenus, ce que nous avons comme culture à présenter au reste du monde".

   Après la reconnaissance de la traite et de l'esclavage comme crimes contre l'humanité en 2001, elle préside en France le comité pour la mémoire de l'esclavage.

   Atteinte d'une maladie neurodégénérative, elle choisit à 80 ans de se retirer en Provence où elle a dicté son dernier livre à une amie "L'Evangile du nouveau monde", sa réecriture du Nouveau Testament, en Guadeloupe.

   Plusieurs fois citée pour le Nobel de Littérature, elle avait remporté à Stockholm en 2018 - année où la suprême récompense avait été reportée - le "nouveau prix de littérature", un substitut institué par la "Nouvelle académie". Son oeuvre n'avait jusque-là jamais été distinguée.

'Entangled Pasts' - in pictures

 

Insight into the 'Entangled Pasts' exhibition - at the Royal Academy of Arts in London

Entangled Pasts, 1768–now

Art, Colonialism and Change

3 February - 28 April 2024

Main Galleries | Burlington House

J.M.W. Turner and Ellen Gallagher. Joshua Reynolds and Yinka Shonibare. John Singleton Copley and Hew Locke. Past and present collide in one powerful exhibition.

This spring, we bring together over 100 major contemporary and historical works as part of a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism – and how it may help set a course for the future.

Artworks by leading contemporary British artists of the African, Caribbean and South Asian diasporas, including Sonia Boyce, Frank Bowling and Mohini Chandra will be on display alongside works by artists from the past 250 years including Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W.Turner and John Singleton Copley – creating connections across time which explore questions of power, representation and history.

Experience a powerful exploration of art from 1768 to now. Featuring a room of life-sized cut-out painted figures by Lubaina Himid, an immersive video installation by Isaac Julien, a giant flotilla of model boats by Hew Locke, and a major new sculpture in the Courtyard by Tavares Strachan. Plus, powerful paintings, photographs, sculptures, drawings and prints by El Anatsui, Barbara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, Shahzia Sikander, John Akomfrah and Betye Saar.

Informed by our ongoing research of the RA and its colonial past, this exhibition engages around 50 artists connected to the RA to explore themes of migration, exchange, artistic traditions, identity and belonging.

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In 2020, as the Black Lives Matter movement took hold, a statue was removed from its plinth and toppled into the waters of Bristol Harbour. This act gave birth to a creative movement, generating new ways of thinking about memorialisation and Britain’s colonial past and playing into a long tradition of art taking a central role in grassroots activism.

In this course, we will examine the myriad ways art can harness the power for social change. From the French Revolution and the role of art in revolutionary society to the Guerrilla Girls’ campaign for gender equality, to the work of contemporary artists such as Ana Mendieta on the climate crisis, we will discuss the beginnings of activist movements that have shaped our society, and consider the place of art within these.

Exploring prescient issues such as the fight for racial equity, feminism and climate change, this lecture series examines art as both a constructive and destructive medium. Talks are given by academics, curators and art-world professionals, with the opportunity for questions and discussion.

Course

Week 1: Art and revolution with Melissa Chemam

An introduction to the history of the long relationship between art and conflict, from revolutions such as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, to the present day.

Melissa Chemam is a journalist, broadcaster and writer on art, music, social change, multiculturalism, African affairs, North/South relations, and activism. She is the author of the book Massive Attack - Out of the Comfort Zone (2019), and has been published by BBC Culture, Al Jazeera, RFI English, Art UK, CIRCA Art Magazine, the Public Art Review, the New Arab, The Independent, Reader’s Digest, UP Mag and Skin Deep. She also worked as a journalism lecturer and as the writer in residence at the Arnolfini art centre, in Bristol, from 2019 to 2022.

What's next for Senegal with President-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye?

 

My latest: 

Five days after the presidential election in Senegal, Faye is getting everything ready for a swift transition next week, and again promised change both in policies and in the way the country is administered. 

Read on RFI English's website here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20240329-change-afoot-for-senegal-as-bassirou-diomaye-faye-readies-for-power

Macky Sall presided over his last government meeting in Dakar this week.

He also met with both Faye and Sonko on Thursday for a first "working session".

The political crisis triggered by Sall's last-minute postponement of the vote, and the subsequently rushed electoral timetable, for long cast doubt on whether the handover could take place before the end of the incumbent's term.

But Faye and his closest advisers have been reassuring and stated they'd be ready for the handover next week.

A swift handover in the West African nation, known for its stability, peaceful transitions between Presidents, would again reinforce the democratic principles in the coup-hit region.

Tight timetable

The incumbent's term officially ends on 2 April.

Faye already announced that he and his team, formed from members of his party the Pastef, will be ready for a handover on that day.

4 April is the date the Senegalese commemorate the independence.

Then Faye intends to form his first government on 5 April, the day after the national holiday.

Presidential candidates nevertheless have in principle 72 hours after the results are announced to lodge an appeal with the Constitutional Council. 

The Constitution states that if no appeals are made in this period, "the Council shall immediately proclaim the final results of the ballot".

If no objection is made, the Council has to confirm the results of the election.

"Faye's victory took many by surprise," Timbuktu Institute senior fellow Babacar Ndiaye told me. 

"The days after the election have been really peaceful so it's a success for democracy."

But he underlines as well that Faye and Sonko largely won largely because of people's anger against Sall's outpouring, especially his autocratic and oppressive drift. Now they have to deliver the change they promised.

Daring programme

Faye, who has never held elected office, is set to become the fifth president of the West African country of around 18 million people.

On Monday, he promised to restore national "sovereignty" and implement his programme of "left-wing pan-Africanism".

He said he would prioritise "national reconciliation", "rebuilding institutions" and "significantly reducing the cost of living".

His election could herald a profound overhaul of Senegal's institutions.

He spoke of reducing the "hyper-presidentialism", and of introducing a position of vice president. Some have been speculating that he might use it to give a special position to his mentor and former leader of his party, Ousmane Sonko.

"This happened before in 1962 in Senegal, and it didn't work. So, Faye and Sonko would have to find an effective way to run this government even if it's dual," Ndiaye says. 

"It will be a challenge for Faye. He would have to take his place, express himself, and have authority." 

Faye and his team intend to rationalise the administration, by getting rid of positions and bureaus considered by many as useless, including the Social and Economic Council, and the High Council for Local Governments.

"This could save billions a year", Ndiaye adds, "and save money for significant programmes especially targeted at reducing inequality."

Faye's programme could also rapidly impact the whole region, as Faye has praised a change in the monetary system, to drop the colonial CFA franc and switch to a regional, Ecowas-led currency first, the Eco, and if this doesn't come about to a national currency. 

"This could change Senegal," Ndiaye concludes. 

"To address the needs of the people, especially the poorest and the weakest in the country. But it also brings a lot of responsibility on them. It's one thing to be popular, another to deliver and to show good management skills."

French parliament condemns 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians

 

Paris, March 28, 2024 (AFP) - The French parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a resolution condemning as "bloody and murderous repression" the killing by Paris police of dozens of Algerians in a crackdown on a 1961 protest to support Algerian independence.

   In recent years France has made a series of efforts to come to terms with its colonial past in Algeria.

   Dozens of peaceful demonstrators died during a crackdown by Paris police on a protest by Algerians in 1961. The scale of the massacre was covered up for decades by French authorities before President Emmanuel Macron condemned it as "inexcusable" in 2021.

   The text of the resolution stressed the crackdown took place "under the authority of police prefect Maurice Papon" and also called for the official commemoration of the massacre.

   The bill, put forward by Greens lawmaker Sabrina Sebaihi and ruling Renaissance party MP Julie Delpech, was approved by 67 lawmakers, with 11 against.

   Sebaihi said the vote represented the "first step" towards the "recognition of this colonial crime, the recognition of this state crime."

   The term "state crime" however does not appear in the text of the resolution, which was jointly drafted by Macron's party and the Elysee Palace.

   On the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed in 2021, Macron acknowledged that several dozen protesters had been killed, "their bodies thrown into the River Seine."

   The precise number of victims has never been made clear and some activists fear several hundred could have been killed.

   "Let us spare a thought here today for these victims and their families, who have been hit hard by the spiral of violence", Dominique Faure, the minister for local and regional authorities, said on Thursday.

   She noted that efforts had been made in the past to recognise the massacre.

   In 2012, then president Francois Hollande paid "tribute to the victims" of a "bloody crackdown" on the men and women demonstrating for "the right to independence".

   The rally was called in the final year of France's increasingly violent attempt to retain Algeria as a north African colony, and in the middle of a bombing campaign targeting mainland France by pro-independence militants.

   However, Faure expressed reservations about establishing a special day to commemorate the massacre, pointing out that three dates already existed to "commemorate what happened during the Algerian war".

   "I think it is important to let history do the work before considering a new day of commemoration specifically for the victims of October 17, 1961."

   France has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds with Algeria, but it refuses to "apologise or repent" for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in 1962.

Senegal: Bassirou Diomaye Faye is President

 

Senegal's governing coalition candidate Amadou Ba on Monday recognised a win by anti-establishment candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye in the first-round of presidential elections and offered his congratulations, a statement said.   

"Considering the trends of the presidential election results and awaiting the official declaration, I congratulate the president Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye on his victory in the first round," Ba said in the statement.

Senegal elections: first results out of polls

 

Senegal opposition candidate Faye leads initial presidential election tallies

Reuters - By Diadie Ba

March 24, 2024 - 10:16 PM

DAKAR, March 24 (Reuters) - The first polling station tallies of Senegal's delayed presidential election on Sunday showed opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye taking the lead, prompting street celebrations after a peaceful day of voting that many hope will bring change.

Millions lined up to elect Senegal's fifth president following three years of unprecedented political
turbulence that sparked violent anti-government protests and buoyed support for the opposition.

At stake is the potential end of an administration that has pushed investor-friendly policies but failed to ease
 economic hardship in one of coup-prone West Africa's more stable democracies.

Voters had a choice of 19 contenders to replace President Macky Sall, stepping down after a second term marred by unrest over the prosecution of firebrand opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and concerns that
Sall wanted to extend his mandate past the constitutional limit.

The incumbent was not on the ballot for the first time in Senegal's history. His ruling coalition picked
former prime minister Amadou Ba, 62, as its candidate.

The election day was smooth with no major incidents reported. Polls closed at 1800 GMT, after which
voting bureaus started publishing their tallies.

The first set of tallies announced on television showed Faye had won the majority of votes, triggering widespread street celebrations among opposition supporters in the capital Dakar.

About 7.3 million people were registered to vote in the country of around 18 million. It was not clear how many of the 15,633 polling stations had finished counting.

Final provisional results are expected by Tuesday. A second round of voting will take place if no candidate secures the more than 50% majority required to prevent a runoff.

Sonko, in jail until recently, was disqualified from the race because of a defamation conviction. He is
backing Faye, the co-creator of his now dissolved Pastef party, who was also detained almost a year ago on charges including defamation and contempt of court.

An amnesty law passed this month allowed their release days before the vote. They have campaigned 
together under the banner "Diomaye is Sonko". Some high-profile politicians and opposition candidates
have backed Faye's candidacy.

"The population is choosing between continuation and rupture," Faye said after casting his vote, urging contenders to accept the winner.

Gaza: still no ceasefire this Friday...

 

France to work on new UN Gaza ceasefire resolution after Russian and Chinese veto, says Macron

France will work on a new UN resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza following the Russian and Chinese veto against a resolution proposed by the US, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, reports Reuters.

“Following Russia’s and China’s veto a few minutes ago, we are going to resume work on the basis of the French draft resolution in the security council and work with our American, European and Arab partners to reach an agreement,” Macron said at end of a EU leaders’ summit in Brussels.

France’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it had started drafting a resolution with diplomats, saying they would put a draft forward if the US resolution did not pass.

- Reuters 

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More here:

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Friday to keep pressing for a Gaza ceasefire call at the UN Security Council, moments after China and Russia vetoed a US-backed draft resolution.

French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking immediately after the vetoes, said France would keep pushing an alternative resolution for a ceasefire.

"The Security Council must call for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access," Macron told reporters in Brussels, at the end of the European summit.

He promised to resume work based on an alternative French resolution "along with our US, European and Arab partners to reach an agreement".

Russia and China on Friday vetoed a US-sponsored UN resolution calling for “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

France’s foreign ministry had said on Thursday it had started drafting a resolution with diplomats, saying they would put a draft forward if the US resolution did not pass.

The Security Council may later Friday consider another resolution with a more explicit call for an immediate ceasefire.

Vetoes

The US resolution aimed to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than two million hungry Palestinians.

It was the first of its kind to come from Washington, with a demand for a immediate ceasefire.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the vote in the 15-member security council was 11 members in favour, three against and one abstention.

Before the vote, Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow 

supports an immediate ceasefire, but he questioned the language in the resolution and accused the US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of “misleading the international community” for “politicised” reasons, AP added.

Pressure

Moscow also accused Washington of a "hypocritical spectacle" that does not pressure Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday for talks aimed at ensuring more aid flows into Gaza, amid increasingly tense relations between the two allies over the six-month-old war.

The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the vetoes would jeopardise the ongoing talks for the release of hostages.

Speaking before the vote on the US draft, she had said, "by adopting the resolution before us, we can put pressure on Hamas to accept the deal on the table."

 (with newswires)