NG’ANG’A: What France’s renewed focus on Africa means for Anglophone nations

The relationship between the French Republic and the African continent began in the 18th Century with the establishment of an isolated trading post. In 1830, France made its ambitions official with the seizure of Algiers. The intervening 196 years since then have been tumultuous ones for France across Africa.

Some saw the exit from Africa of France’s remaining military forces amidst rising anti-French sentiment as a symbolic full stop to more than two centuries of French direct involvement in Africa. But France is now trying to prove it is a committed partner to Africa by reorienting itself towards Anglophone African countries.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Nairobi, which hosted the Africa Forward Summit this week, a joint Kenyan-French effort to boost partnerships between Africa and France for innovation and growth. The event was especially significant, as it marked the first time since 1973 that the summit has been held in an Anglophone country.

Beyond the somewhat tired name that feels like a template any Western government might use to engage in Africa, the Africa Forward Summit signified a significant change in France’s strategy.

France President Emmanuel Macron himself has alluded to the faults in his country’s past strategy, especially in its ex-colonial sphere of influence in North and West Africa, and the real need to recalibrate France’s engagements to build for the future.

In his welcome message for the summit, Macron suggested this need for change, saying it was a “moment to welcome a renewed relationship between Africa and France”.

That Kenya has jumped at this opportunity, and come out on top as the host and partner government for the event and ensuing investments shows that France can still be a major player. In fact, with little fanfare, France has quietly slipped into first place, beating China as Kenya’s number one lender in 2025, with Japan in second place and Germany in third, according to media analyses.

France is Europe’s third-largest economy and represents a major potential investment and trade opportunity for Kenya, which has traditionally focused on its productive core partnerships with the United States and the UK.

The result of the summit was the Nairobi Declaration intended to help shape and formulate the agenda for the 2026 G7 Summit, which is being held in Evian, Switzerland, in June and to which Kenyan President William Ruto has been invited.

Analysts will be looking at both summits intently, trying to assess what France’s pivot towards Anglophone countries might bring. If the pivot is successful, France might offer support in a wider range of fields.

For example, through cultural engagement, something France has typically been effective in doing, or possibly through security assistance, an area in which they have experienced mixed results.

Most notably, France’s counterterrorism efforts across five countries in the Sahel, Operation Barkhane, ended somewhat ignominiously in 2022, when it was finally asked to leave by the junta that was then ruling Mali.

After centuries of engagement, this exit provided a symbolic end to France’s major engagement with North and West Africa. Since France’s withdrawal, the security situation has deteriorated drastically across Sahelian and Saharan states, and violence has surged.

Only a few weeks ago, a loose conglomerate of insurgent and terrorist groups meted out a wave of violence across Mali, overrunning key cities and strategic locations.

This is the latest example of steadily worsening violence in countries where Operation Barkhane was active, such as Burkina Faso and Mali. The French will be watching the security scene in the Sahel with interest, as the gap left by their forces was quickly filled by the rapacious Wagner Group (now the Africa Corps).

The mandate of these Russian mercenary groups was to provide security and reduce the growing insurgent and terrorist violence. However, under their tenure, violence has only worsened. Operation Barkhane was unpopular, but some are now seeing that it was more effective and less brutal than the Russian alternatives.

France could look to Kenya as an environment in which it could renew its security assistance in Africa.

France’s re-entry into Africa via a new linguistic zone, and its offer of a fresh start are welcome, and the promised investment is much needed.

Beyond the summit in Nairobi and the upcoming G7 in Switzerland shortly after it, both countries will be treading new ground and assessing what will work and what won’t.

It will be interesting to reflect on whether France can capitalise on its role as a key lender in a more sustainable way than China, and whether it has learnt from its past mistakes in North and West Africa.

The writer is a newspaper editor and creative writer