Fashoda in the news

[Edward A Nilges]

Excerpts from today's NY Times article "France Fears Anglo-Saxons Are
Usurping It in Africa," by Howard W. French:

"ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, April 3 -- Nearly a century ago, when a British
flotilla steamed down the Nile from Khartoum, the surrounding of a remote
French outpost forced Paris to lower its tricolor there and forever abandon
its colonial designs on eastern Africa.

"The French have never forgotten the bitter 1899 humiliation, known as the
Fachoda Incident, after the surrendered Sudanes garrison town. And today,
with English-speaking countries of East Africa supporting an advancing
rebellion in Zaire, many in France are warning of a similar debacle for
France's position in Africa.

"Throughout Zaire's six-month-old civil war, Paris has been haunted by
historical setbacks dating back to Fachoda. But in place of the 'treacherous
hand' of the British that Paris once denounced, many in France have come to
see the turmoil in central Africa as a reckless, American-led drive to
rearrange the political map of the region at the expense of strong French
influence.

"In recent weeks virtually every major French newspaper has published
articles speculating on American support for Zairian rebels via Rwanda and
Uganda, from supposed American combat advisers killed in action to weapon
supplies and logistical help."

...

"'Somewhere in the mountains of Kivu a new Yalta is being sketched,' wrote a
columnist in the Paris weekly Jeune Afrique, who added that from now on 'it
is America that has the wind in its sails" in Africa.

"The irony of these assertions like these, many American experts on African
affairs say, is that the Zaire crisis has cast light on the Africa policy of
the United States, showing it to be in considerable disarray, with
Washington far from capable of thinking in grand designs."

The Stencil/Profane clash is even articulated into concrescence several
paragraphs later:

"'I wish I could give credit to the U.S. Government for the broad vision and
policy of doing something this, but I can't,' said Herman Cohen, who was
Secretary of State for African affairs during the Bush Administration. 'It's
day-to-day policy. One problem at a time builds up, and the French, with
their paranoia, see a grand design.'"

Ed