Africa-France summit: Macron refuses to apologize for French colonialism in Africa
AA / Paris
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Africa-France summit: Macron refuses to apologize for French colonialism in Africa
By MORNINGEXPRESS08/10/2021
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AA / Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday reiterated his refusal to apologize for his country’s colonial past in Africa.
Macron was speaking during his participation in the last day of the Africa-France summit held in the coastal city of Montpellier (south-east), where he debated with a group of 11 young people from the black continent on various issues, including democracy in their countries.
The young people selected to debate with Macron castigated France’s paternalistic and colonialist attitude.
The French head of state declared that “apologizing will not solve the problem, however recognition will allow us to reach the truth”, calling for the rewriting of a common history in the light of his declared position.
This year’s Africa-France summit was held without the participation of African heads of state, with the exception of the French president himself.
Macron chose the new format of the summit, to “give priority to young people from African countries and to those who have the capacity to change the black continent and France and listen to them”, according to the French regional daily “Midi Libre”.
Macron’s statements come in a very particular context, marked by strong tensions between Paris and Algiers, after the newspaper “Le Monde” reported the words of the tenant of the Elysee in which he disputes the existence of a Algerian nation before the French colonization of the country in 1830.
“Was there an Algerian nation before French colonization? “, Asked the French head of state to this effect.
Algiers denounced Macron’s statements against him, considering them to be “an unacceptable attack on the memory of more than 5 million resistance fighters killed by colonial France”.
The Algerian authorities responded with the sanction by prohibiting the overflight of its airspace by the French military aviation, engaged in particular within Barkhane, a decision taken in the wake of Algiers recalling its ambassador in Paris “for consultations”.
* Translated from Arabic by Majdi Ismail