The humid air of Nairobi this week was thick with more than just the usual bustle of the “Green City in the Sun.” It was heavy with the scent of high-stakes diplomacy, the sterile optimism of neoliberal manifestos, and, for those standing on the edges of the red carpets, the stinging residue of police tear gas. As French President Emmanuel Macron and his Kenyan host, President William Ruto and over 20 African leaders including Nigeria’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu, concluded the Africa Forward Summit,” the official communiqué painted a picture of a “partnership of equals.” But from a Pan-African perspective, the summit felt less like a leap forward and more like a tactical pivot by a fading imperial power seeking a new hunting ground.
The Pivot to the East
For decades, the “France-Africa” brand—infamously known as *Françafrique*—was a West African story. It was a saga of the CFA franc, military bases in the Sahel, and a “private warehouse” of resources. Yet, with anti-French sentiment boiling over in Bamako, Ouagadougou, and Niamey, Paris finds itself “sorely ostracized” in its traditional sphere of influence.
Macron’s arrival in Nairobi, co-hosting a summit with an English-speaking powerhouse, is a calculated attempt to diversify the portfolio. France is not leaving Africa; it is simply rebranding. By shifting the focus to innovation, digital infrastructure, and green energy in East Africa, Macron hopes to wash away the “toxic” label of West African paternalism. But as the saying goes, a leopard does not change its spots; it only moves to a different tree.
The “Partnership” of Debt and Extraction
On paper, the numbers are dazzling. A €23 billion investment package, promises of 250,000 jobs, and eleven bilateral agreements covering everything from nuclear energy to high-speed rail. However, the Pan-African critique asks a fundamental question: Who owns the future being built?
While President Ruto speaks of Kenya as a “hub for green energy,” the summit’s subtext remains extractive. The heavy presence of over 60 CEOs—including those from TotalEnergies and Orano—suggests that the “Green Transition” being discussed is one where Africa remains the provider of raw materials (lithium, cobalt, green hydrogen) and the market for European patents.
We must be wary of a “Green Deal” that asks Africa to export its renewable energy to power European cities while our own hospitals remain off the grid. If the industrialization doesn’t happen on African soil, it isn’t “partnership”; it is merely a more polite form of the old colonial value chain.
The Financial Architecture: Africa as a “Risk”
A significant portion of the summit was dedicated to the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD). African leaders rightfully argued that the continent is not “capital poor” but “risk-transformation poor.” Yet, the solution offered still feels trapped in the European orbit.
Macron’s promise to push for African financial reform at the upcoming G7 summit in Evian is a reminder of the persistent gatekeeper role France plays. Why must African financial sovereignty be negotiated in a French resort town? True Pan-Africanism demands that we look inward at the $4 trillion in domestic savings currently sitting idle or fleeing the continent, rather than waiting for a “guarantee mechanism” blessed by Paris to unlock our own wealth.
The Silenced Dissent
The most honest moment of the summit did not happen in the plenary halls of State House, but at the Dedan Kimathi statue in the city center. There, Kenyan activists and international delegates—organized under the Pan-Africanism Summit Against Imperialism**—were met with tear gas and arrests.
The state’s repression of these voices reveals the fragility of the “Africa Forward” narrative. If this partnership is so beneficial, why must it be defended with batons? The protesters’ “irreducible minimums”—total debt cancellation, climate reparations as grants rather than loans, and the closure of foreign military bases—were the very topics conspicuously absent from the official agenda.
The Path Toward Sovereignty
President Ruto remarked that Kenya would “not look East or West,” but forward. It is a noble sentiment, but looking forward requires a clear-eyed view of who is standing beside us.
A genuine Pan-African partnership with France would look very different from the Nairobi summit. It would involve:
1. Intellectual Property Sovereignty: Moving beyond being a “market” for French tech to being co-owners of 21st-century patents.
2. Military Reciprocity: Ending the “policing” of the continent. If partnership is equal, why are there French bases in Africa but no African bases in France?
3. Ecological Justice: Treating “debt-for-development” swaps not as gifts, but as partial down-payments on a century of ecological debt.
The Nairobi Summit was a masterclass in diplomatic theater. It successfully showcased a “modern” France and a “proactive” Kenya. But for the Pan-Africanist, the spectacle serves as a warning: the masks have changed, but the play remains the same. Africa does not need a
“Forward” led by Paris; it needs a trajectory defined, funded, and defended by Africans.
