Episode 28: Interrogating the Anti-French Uprising in Former African French Colonies with Professor Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos

Former French colonies in Africa, from Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, to Gabon are gripped in a growing wave of popular discontentment against the persistent influence and control by France, their former colonizer, amidst a pervasive poverty and insecurity. This has sparked an anti-French, and by extension, anti-Western sentiment and narrative that other geopolitical actors such as Russia and the military of these countries are capitalizing on to pursue their own agenda. In this week's episode, I am joined by Professor Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, a political scientist and a senior researcher at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) in Paris to discuss the scope of France's influence in former African colonies. Contrary to popular opinion, Marc-Antoine opines that France's influence (economic and political) has been dwindling.