Addressing the Africa Diaspora Summit on Thursday, 11th July, 2019, together with His Excellency Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, President Akufo-Addo noted that the independence obtained by most African countries, nearly six decades ago, has, largely, not led to the socio-economic transformation of these countries.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has tasked the African peoples and their leaders to take charge of their own destinies, abandon the mentality of being dependent on aid and charity, and, work towards the transformation of their countries.
“Once we change the narrative about Africa, we have to get away from the idea that there is some ‘Father Christmas’ somewhere who is going to come and develop our continent for us. There is no such ‘Father Christmas’. There is just us. Once that mentality is changed, then our relations with other people will become much more structured,” the President said. “Let me repeat that, the destiny of all black people in the world is bound up with Africa. A performing Africa elevates the status of all black people around the world. A non performing Africa continues the situation where black people around the world are looked down on,”
President Akufo-Addo said.
“France needs you,” French President Emmanuel Macron has told members of the African diaspora, at the Elysée palace.
“If I invited you here, it is because I want us to build together. I need you, not just to create a new vision but a new relationship with Africa,” Macron told a room full of entrepreneurs, students, artists, as he extolled the virtues of French nationals with “multiple identities.”
Both leaders consider the diaspora to be a vital link between France and Africa.
“We want to work with all of Africa, and improve our partnership, and we need ambassadors.
The diaspora are the best ambassadors we have,” he said.
France wants to strengthen its foothold in Africa, and claw back lost territory from competitors like China. Its gateway is the diaspora: dual citizens, and French nationals of African origin, who already know the continent and have connections there.
“We cannot succeed without you,” Macron said. “That is what distinguishes us from our competitors. Before our relationship was unbalanced.
We went to Africa merely to make money without benefitting ordinary Africans. Today, what we are building is an equal partnership with Africa.”
The benefit of the diaspora Macron argued is that they are young and entrepreneurial, and come without the baggage of France’s colonial past.
Many however are still held back by a negative perception of themselves, reckons Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addo.
“An Africa which continues to live the narrative of poverty, hungry children, people going across the Sahara, going in rickety boats and dying in Lampedusa to get to Europe, that Africa is not a narrative that is going to help you over here,” he said.
Source : GhanaTalkRadio
