France Out of Africa! PASAI Shows the Way

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 13 May 2026

Citizen TV coverage of the Pan-African Summit Against Imperialism illustrated the hostility of the Kenyan government to criticism related to its alliance with Paris. Watch the report at the following link: 12 activists arrested in Nairobi anti-summit protests - YouTube

An international gathering of anti-imperialists in Nairobi, Kenya revealed the lies of “Africa Forward” as the presidents of France and Kenya made plans to continue the exploitation of a nation and its people.

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, long ago proved his bona fides as a puppet of the United States and its junior imperialist partners. In 2023, he sent Kenyan police, under the “Multinational Security Support Mission” to assist the U.S. in its occupation of Haiti. At the time, he referred to his actions as being “Pan-African,” even as he did the bidding of the imperialist powers and made a mockery of that term.

Ruto’s loyalty was rewarded as Kenya was designated a Major Non-NATO Ally, an elaborate way of saying that he is a puppet, a stooge, a lapdog, for U.S. interests. Of course, that means he plays the same role for junior partners, such as France. The announcement of what was originally called a France-Africa Summit cemented Kenya’s role as perhaps the most eager of all the African vassal states.

France has a long and terrible history in Africa and in many places in the world outside of Europe. France was a colonizer of lands from Canada and Haiti in the Americas to Kanaky (New Caledonia) in the Pacific to Vietnam in Asia. So-called overseas departments such as Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean are still de facto colonies, much like Puerto Rico is for the U.S. France joined other European powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884 and 1885, which divided up the African continent into European spheres of colonial influence and which also included the Ottoman Empire and the United States in attendance.

French colonialism operated as all colonial projects have done throughout history. Peoples were subjugated and massacred, independence struggles were cruelly repressed, and resources were exploited. The end of the colonial era in the 1960s brought about a neo-colonial structure, as former African colonies were forced to use the CFA franc, which required nations to deposit half of their foreign reserves in the French treasury and twenty percent of their liabilities, allowing them to keep only thirty percent of their foreign reserves. France's nuclear testing left a toxic legacy in Algeria. Nuclear power in France was generated with uranium from a former colony, Niger, whose people lack reliable electricity resources for themselves.

But Niger is one of the West African countries, along with Burkina Faso and Mali, which have formed the Alliance of Sahel States, AES in French, which ended their subordinate relationship to France and embarked upon a course of true independence and sovereignty. Their actions have made them targets, as France is now involved in an effort to destabilize the AES and is using proxy forces to carry out military attacks against that country. As one would expect a colonial power to do, France is not giving up on interference in the affairs of African states, but is instead redoubling its efforts to regain what it lost, and the government of Kenya fits its needs quite nicely.

The 2026 France-Africa Summit to be held in Kenya was announced with great fanfare. It was the first time the gathering was held in a non-Francophone country. The choice of Kenya, a former British colony, may seem surprising until one considers that the aims of the two countries merged perfectly. Kenya seeks to be a favored vassal state, providing service to the U.S. and its partners. France wants to preserve its position as an imperialist state and find a new partner in crime that is willing to disadvantage its own people in exchange for goodies from the west for Ruto and others among Kenya’s ruling elite.

The summit was renamed Africa Forward: Africa-France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth, an extravagant title meant to cover up nefarious purposes that were clear to anyone paying attention. Before the summit took place Kenya agreed to accept the deployment of 800 French troops, make investments in infrastructure that will benefit French corporations, and in so-called green energy projects that will provide France with carbon offsets, a ruse used around the world to give the appearance of reducing fossil fuel production. In sum, Kenya would once again be a site for exploitation and extraction that would provide no benefit for the struggling people of that country in addition to being a site that benefits the West’s geostrategic concerns.

In response to Africa Forward, a counter summit was convened by a Working Committee which made plans to host the Pan-Africanism Summit Against Imperialism (PASAI), on May 11 and May 12, the two days that Africa Forward was taking place. The Working Committee, with leadership from the Communist Party Marxist Kenya,  invited delegations from Africa, Europe, North America and Asia to attend PASAI and this columnist was among those gathered in Nairobi.

The actual Africa Forward summit was a display of French racism and arrogance and subservience from those who pass for true leaders in Africa. Of the 54 African nations, 30 were represented at Africa Forward. The proceedings were a predictable display of bad performance, including French President Emmanuel Macron taking a morning run with former Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge. The ridiculous photo opportunity was not even the worst moment of Africa Forward. When audience members wouldn’t stop talking during one session, Macron raced to the podium, grabbed a microphone and lectured the audience as if he were a teacher yelling at young students.

“Excuse me, everybody, hey, hey, hey. I’m sorry guys, but it’s impossible to speak about culture, to have people like that, super-inspired, coming here, making a speech, with such a noise. So, this is a total lack of respect. So I suggest, if you want to have bilaterals, or speak about something else, you have bilateral rooms or you go outside. If you want to stay here, we listen to the people. And we’re playing the same game. OK? Thank you.”

It isn’t easy to leave paternalism and racism behind, even when pretending to be a friend. Even worse, Macron was applauded by many in the room, making a mockery of any claims of mutual respect at Africa Forward and revealing that too many Africans still see themselves as children to be lectured to. But running through the streets and scolding attendees were not the worst moments for the French president. Macron proclaimed, “We are the true pan-Africanists. We believe that Africa is a continent and that this continent has an enormous amount to build.” The African landmass is a continent, and no one needs Macron’s beliefs in order for that fact to be accepted. As for Pan-Africanism, no one defines it by a French president’s throwaway line. His remark generated great attention, but it should not have received more attention than the fact that France is up to its old colonialist tricks, which is the worst insult of all.

The PASAI gathering shows how Kenya and all of Africa can be freed from subjugation by the Macrons of the world. There were discussions on freeing Africa from military occupation, ending the exploitation of African labor and resources, exposing the dangers of green capitalism, the need to free Africa from finance capital and its loans and debt traps, and the need for international solidarity in building revolutionary Pan-Africanism. Of course it is socialism which will bring these needed changes about, and not western leaders rehashing the same forms of domination that have kept the continent’s people poor and struggling and its states unable to practice self-determination.

The Kenyan state is very afraid of such discussions. So much so that its force was brought down on a relatively small group of PASAI attendees who marched to a statue honoring the Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi, who was executed by the British in 1957. They marched to amplify their demands and to express opposition to the latest neo-liberal and imperialist trap for Kenya. But this peaceful action was met by police who broke up the march with tear gas, and 14 participants from different nations and a journalist were all detained. 

The use of force is indicative of how all neo-liberal states operate. They must repress protest in order to survive as the rapacious and cruel entities that they are. Real democracy is a danger to the back room deal making and corruption that make Africa-France summits so farcical. International solidarity among committed anti-imperialists and revolutionary Pan-Africanists who will never be quoted by Macron or Ruto presents a path to change that is desperately needed. 

The PASAI hashtag #FranceOutofAfrica says quite a lot. The presence of colonial powers destroys and dehumanizes. French presidents and their Kenyan counterparts can never move Africa forward at all. If they have summits in the future, they should be renamed Africa Backward because that is the only direction in which they can take the continent and its people.