News — French

One of West Africa’s premier research institutions, the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN), was first created by the French Government in 1938. Established in Dakar, Senegal, the organization was originally called the Institut Français d’Afrique Noire. Designed on behalf of French colonial administrators, the IFAN was to be a cultural and scientific institute that focused on the expansion of knowledge pertaining to the historical, linguistic, and sociological aspects of French colonial populations in West Africa.

Support for the venture originally arose in France during the early 1930s, at a time when the French Government was experiencing a revitalized curiosity in the nation’s colonial possessions and peoples. Additionally, the creation of the institution was viewed as a movement away from viewing French colonial territories in purely material or economic terms. IFAN followed the Dakar School of Medicine, founded in 1918, as the major institution of research and higher education in West Africa.

French naturalist Théodore André Monod (1902-2000) was the institution’s founding director. From the time of his appointment until his retirement in 1965, Monod worked to promote the inclusion of Africans to some of the institute’s higher positions of employment. However, during the IFAN’s early years, positions throughout the organization were granted mainly to white French citizens. One exception was the post of ethnologist, held by Amadou Hampâté Bâ, whom Monod hired in the organization’s formative years. World War II slowed IFAN’s growth and development, greatly reducing the number of available staff members.

After the end of World War II, the IFAN experienced a period of dramatic expansion, which resulted in various organizational branches appearing in other French possessions such as Mali and Guinea. Throughout much of the 1950s the IFAN witnessed waves of staff turnover as Africans began to occupy a larger percentage of the organization’s staff. This was partly due to the changing political climate that resulted in Senegal receiving independence in 1960, soon followed by other colonies. At around the same time control of the IFAN in Senegal was transferred to the University of Dakar (founded in 1957), which had been modeled on other French universities.

In 1986, however, when the University of Dakar was renamed Cheikh Anta Diop University (after the noted Senegalese anthropologist who worked at IFAN for decades), the institution itself became the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop. The IFAN continues to publish two major academic journals: the Mémoire de l’IFAN, and the Bulletin de l’IFAN.

Gabon is a former French colony in Central Africa bordered by Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to the north, Congo Brazzaville to east and south and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It is a country of just over two million people and although it is a nominally rich country due to its oil, the majority of its people are not beneficiaries.

The country used to be part of what was known as the French Equatorial Africa Federation. It was established in 1910 and comprised the following territories: Ubangi-Shari (now majorly known as the Central Africa Republic); French Gabon; French Congo (now split between Congo Brazzaville and the Central African Republic) and the territory that is now called Chad.

The Pygmy people are thought to be the autochthonous people of this region that includes modern Gabon. The Pygmy people are a constellation of different ethnicities in Central Africa whose way of life was negatively impacted by the coming of the Europeans and continues to be so even after colonization.

For instance, from 1910 to 1940, the lands of the Aka, a Pygmy people, were presided over by the French Equatorial Africa, which forced tribes within the vicinity into rubber manufacturing. Their habitats in the forests enabled them to revolutionize their hunting techniques such as using nets as opposed to spears and encouraging more women to become hunters as well.

There are concerns, however, that traditional knowledge and many Aka rituals are slowly disappearing because of the drastic change of lifestyle and reduction of game in the forest due to modernization.

It was in the 15th century that the first Europeans, the Portuguese, arrived in this area of the Atlantic Ocean’s coast. They went inland into Central Africa, making encampments around the Komo River in modern-day Libreville, Gabon’s capital city. They called the estuary of the Komo, a gabão, Portuguese for “cloak”.

French billionaire Vincent Bolloré has been accused of shady deals and underhand dealings in the processes leading to his company’s control of Ghana’s largest port, the Tema Harbour.

In a special report, Pan African publication African-Confidential uncovered how Bolloré’s firm, Bolloré Africa Logistics, won the right to build and run a state-of-the-art container terminal at Ghana’s Tema port.

The report described the new container port of Tema as a “lifeline not only for Ghana but for landlocked Burkina Faso and Mali, through their 70% owned joint venture with the Ghana government, Meridian Port Services (MPS).”

The agreement, which was signed under the administration of then Ghanaian President John Mahama, became a subject of a ministerial investigation following his defeat in 2016 to President Nana Akufo-Addo, who secured a second term in December 2020.

The ministerial committee report said the French billionaire and his partners persuaded Mahama to award MPS a new container terminal contract in secret in breach of the country’s procurement laws.

It also said MPS overstated its planned investment which won tax holidays worth $832 million from Ghana’s parliament and that the agreement surreptitiously cut Ghana’s equity in MPS to 15% after first agreeing to 30%.

The committee’s report further claimed that Bolloré and his partners persuaded the government to allow it a monopoly on handling containers, “putting thousands of jobs at other port concerns at risk and driving up prices, and to set tariffs.”

The committee’s report also showed how Bolloré and his partners reduced the fees payable to the government over the life of the concession by $4.1 billion.

To this end, the committee concluded that the deal did not inure to the benefit of Ghana and recommended for a renegotiation which the Akufo-Addo administration ignored. 

“The terms of the agreements between MPS and the state are so tilted against Ghana’s interests, concluded the report, delivered to ministers in February 2018, they should be renegotiated immediately. Yet the much-criticized contracts are still unchanged,” Africa Confidential said.

Africa Confidential further reported that the history of those relations shows “serious ethical professional deficiencies” with the result that “the engagements have to be carefully and deliberately reviewed.”

The newsletter noted that President Akufo-Addo inherited the situation when he won the 2016 election and “instead of blaming the scandal on his predecessor he has chosen to leave the contracts as they stand while friends and officials of his New Patriotic Party (NPP) take up posts with MPS.”

According to Africa Confidential, although Akufo-Addo faced Mahama in December 2020’s general election, “the topic of the Tema deal did not come up in campaigning.”

“The two men appeared to observe a pact of silence on this and several other instances of alleged bad governance and corruption. Akufo-Addo narrowly won the election (AC Vol 61 No 25). This is the story of how the deal took shape, and how a fightback within the Transport Ministry and the NPP against the MPS deal was finally quashed, and the legendary ability of Vincent Bolloré to accommodate political change asserted itself,” it added.

Bolloré has been accused of running a port monopoly in West Africa as his firm is linked to managing 18 ports in the sub-region.

The report likened Bolloré’s concession of Ghana’s port to one he won in for his operations at the port of Lomé, Togo, in return for financing the re-election of the country’s president, Faure Gnassingbé, in 2010.

“On 26 February this year Bolloré and two of his fellow executives admitted, in a plea bargain, to bribing the Togolese president in exchange for favors at the port, and were fined €375,000 each. Bolloré’s company paid a €12 million fine (see Box, Bolloré – a monopoly in every port). The judge was so shocked by what they had done in Togo she rejected details of the plea bargain and ordered a trial of the executives,” the report added.

Internationally acclaimed French luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton appears to have completely goofed with its latest menswear sweater after initially claiming it was inspired by the Jamaican national flag when it actually got the colors wrong.

Describing the $1,340 “Jamaican Stripe Sweater” on its website, the fashion brand had initially said the pullover – which is colored in green, yellow and red – channeled “the collection’s Jamaican Parade theme, with a striped design inspired by the Caribbean island’s national flag.” The Jamaican national flag, however, does not feature a red color. The Caribbean nation’s flag colors include green, yellow and black.

Per the Jamaica Information Service: “Black depicts the strength and creativity of the people; Gold, the natural beauty of the sunlight and the wealth of the country; and Green signifies hope and agricultural resources.”

The apparent mistake was highlighted by a Twitter user by the name @pam_boy who shared screenshots of the product and its description as well as the Jamaican national flag, Pop Sugar reported. “I cannot stress enough how important it is to implement diversity as a value and not a symbol within fashion companies,” the user posted.

The apparent mistake was highlighted by a Twitter user by the name @pam_boy who shared screenshots of the product and its description as well as the Jamaican national flag, Pop Sugar reported. “I cannot stress enough how important it is to implement diversity as a value and not a symbol within fashion companies,” the user posted.