The ''Dakar speech'' has sparked a debate. For over a month people have been talking passionately about Africa, in Paris, Dakar, Pretoria... Journalists, intellectuals, historians, ordinary citizens, politicians, each with their own words, experiences, and opinions, are responding, explaining, and enlarging. In other words, Africa is raising questions, stimulating people, and challenging them. At last!
The first result, but not the least, is that the African continent is on the agenda again.
Since the president's speech, Africa has emerged from the specialized circles of ''donors'' and become part of the great popular debate. By deliberately choosing to speak freely, Nicolas Sarkozy made it easier for others to speak out. Africa's future, its history, its challenges, the status of our relations are all topics that are being discussed now in all our capitals. Let us acknowledge Africa's return to the debate of ideas. This itself is very good news.
What is the basic criticism made of the president? That he denied the responsibility of the ''white man,'' the colonizer? The remarks he made in Dakar are anything but ambiguous: the slave trade and slavery are described as ''crimes against mankind, crimes against humanity.'' And in condemning the negative effects of colonization, the president also had some very strong words to say, again entirely unambiguously: ''there were mistakes, there were crimes.'' People have also spoken out to criticize ''a certain essentialist vision of Africa.'' An infantilizing vision that supposedly deprives Africans of the right to reason and treats them as ''people apart.''
A less selective interpretation would perhaps have made it possible to better understand the remarks made by the president, who, on the contrary, rejected these obsolete parallels. I quote: ''Africa's dramatic plight is not the result of the African soul's being impermeable to logic and reason. This, because the African is just as logical and reasonable as the European.'' For those who have closely followed the debate in Africa, through the press, but also over the Internet, it is striking to see how many responses the ''Dakar speech'' has prompted among young people. Many of them have commented favourably on what is basically the essence of the president's message: Africa's future belongs primarily to the Africans. It is for them, and them alone, to freely decide the kind of future that they want to build. This message in no way conflicts with our obligation of solidarity. But this solidarity can be properly and effectively exercised only on the basis of clear choices accept! ed by the Africans themselves. This message is also an expression of respect. It overturns the pernicious, but commonly accepted, argument of a radiant future that depends entirely on the outside world. With the best intentions in the world, this rationale dooms Africa and the Africans always to remain dependent on an ill-defined outside world.
This resolute and responsible message is consistent with the confidence that the French president places in the capacity of the Africans, and particularly its young people, to achieve change.
Last, this message is consistent with the African continent's most profound aspirations. I have been able to confirm this during all my travels: it is not charity or compassion that the Africans expect from us. What Africa wants, what its young people want, is first and foremost to find their place and for their vitality to be able to express itself by means of high-quality training, decent jobs, and responsibilities at all levels.
What is France's place in all this? Again a number of major principles of action and method, which are unfortunately usually ignored, were proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy in Dakar. It is these principles that I intend to implement with [Foreign Minister] Bernard Kouchner within the framework of a regenerated cooperation policy. What are they?
First, Africa must act collectively in order to ensure peace and to end the vicious cycle of vengeance and hatred. France and Europe will flank it, and we will help it to build its unity, as we in Europe have done. Second, we must act together in order to succeed in better regulating globalization, by introducing more justice, rules - in a word, humanity. While acknowledging the benefits of free trade and competition, we must abandon a certain naivety which could otherwise doom Africa to marginalization. Last, priority must be given to that which will build growth in a sustainable manner. In order to achieve this the violence must end, as the president pointed out. The money invested must go to the populations in order to meet their needs as closely as possible.
I was present in the great amphitheatre in Dakar Thursday 26 July, and I remember that at that very point in the president's speech the students rose to their feet and applauded.