Economics
Macron Says He Aims to Leave France’s Colonial Past in Africa Behind
- Macron puts education, culture, security on same level
- French president to visit Ivory Coast, Ghana on same trip
Emmanuel Macron speaks at Ouagadougou University on Nov. 28.
Photographer: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
French President Emmanuel Macron used a speech to African students to put economic development, culture and education on the same level of importance as the terrorism and migration challenges that dominated his predecessors’ relations with the continent.
In a speech of almost two hours to a boisterous crowd of students at Ouagadougou University in Burkina Faso, the 39-year-old president laid out his African policy, insisting that France’s colonial past should no longer color relations given that both he and his audience had never experienced colonialism.