In early January 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron sparked outrage across West Africa after insinuating that countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger had failed to show gratitude for France’s military involvement in the Sahel. “Some have forgotten to say thank you,” Macron said, referencing the decade-long French campaign against Islamist insurgencies in the region. His comments have since triggered a fresh wave of criticism over France’s enduring role in its former African colonies.
To understand the backlash, it’s important to trace the roots of France’s presence in West Africa. During the 19th and 20th centuries, France established a vast colonial empire across the region, extracting raw materials, imposing French education and legal systems, and violently suppressing dissent. When independence movements swept across Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, many nations—while formally free—remained tied to France through a complex web of military agreements, financial arrangements, and political patronage. This post-independence relationship became known as “Françafrique,” a term used to describe the informal yet powerful influence France exerted over its former colonies.
Through Françafrique, France maintained military bases, intervened in domestic politics, and secured preferential access to African markets and resources. In return, African leaders often received French political and financial backing—provided they remained loyal to Paris. Critics have long argued that this neocolonial setup preserved inequality and stifled local autonomy.
In the past five years, a wave of military coups has shaken this decades-old structure. In Mali, coups in 2020, 2021, and 2022 deposed successive governments. Burkina Faso followed in 2022, and Niger in 2023. These military takeovers were, in part, fueled by widespread frustration with governments seen as ineffective and overly reliant on French military support. France’s counterterrorism operation in the Sahel, Operation Barkhane, once seen as a stabilizing force, has increasingly been viewed as an unwelcome foreign presence.
By 2023, French troops had been expelled from Mali and Burkina Faso. In Niger, following the coup in July 2023, the military government demanded the withdrawal of French forces and severed security ties with Paris. Crowds in Niamey cheered as French flags were torn down and Russian flags raised—a stark symbol of shifting allegiances and rising youth disillusionment. One protester told Al Jazeera, “France has done nothing for us but take. We want real independence.”
This generational shift is not isolated. On TikTok, Twitter (now X), and local news networks, West African youth increasingly express frustration with what they see as France’s paternalistic posture. In viral videos, young activists have denounced the CFA franc and called for national currencies. Others have mocked Macron’s remarks as colonial nostalgia, out of touch with contemporary African aspirations.
Economic sovereignty is central to these critiques. The CFA franc, established in 1945, is used by 14 countries in West and Central Africa. Although nominally African, the currency is backed by the French treasury and managed through institutions with French oversight. Critics say this system restricts monetary independence, funnels reserves to France, and imposes austerity on developing economies.
In 2010, then-Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said, “after 50 years of independence… if we get our power back, we will manage better.” More recently, Togolese economist Kako Nubukpo, a vocal critic of the CFA system says, “while it is important to continue putting pressure on the CFA franc, it is also essential to propose the possible outlines of the transition to the replacement currency.”
Other prominent voices have echoed these sentiments. Sanou Mbaye, a former official at the African Development Bank, described the CFA zone as a colonial relic: “It’s a tool that maintains dependency and suppresses our ability to choose our own path.” Carlos Lopes, a former head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, has argued that the arrangement undermines investment and local industrialization. “It really should be an issue to the French speaking African countries. No country in the world can have a currency that hasn’t been revised for over 30 years. This only exists in French speaking countries in Africa. Therefore something needs to be done,” said the diplomat.
Beyond critiques, the consequences are tangible. Countries in the CFA zone must deposit 50% of their foreign reserves in the French Treasury. Monetary policy is aligned with French economic interests, not local development needs. Governments face limits on borrowing, curbing their ability to fund healthcare, education, or infrastructure. Decisions about interest rates and inflation targets are made with limited African input.
As younger generations mobilize on the streets, online, and in political discourse, the call is no longer just to expel foreign troops but to overhaul the legacy of economic dependence. Macron’s remarks struck a nerve not because of their tone alone, but because they laid bare a broader truth: the post-colonial relationship remains fundamentally unequal.
In a region rethinking its future, France may no longer be welcome not only on the battlefield, but in the nation’s central banks, and currency as well. As new powers such as China, Russia, and Turkey offer partnerships framed around mutual benefit, the question is no longer whether West Africa will break from France, but how, when and what will be next
Featured/Headline Image Caption and Citation: French Colonial Troops, Image source from World History Encyclopedia | CC License, no changes made