France, and notably President Emmanuel Macron, touted this as an extraordinary event, bringing youth from five different spheres: sports, democracy, art restitution, climate issues and entrepreneurship.
The African side, which included some 3,000 young people from the continent, came to discuss the lopsided nature of Africa-France relations, and while pointed criticisms were not held back, some even brought along a number of solutions.
Many of their comments on France’s dance with African dictators, its poor use of vocabulary, paternalism and the French-backed CFA Franc elicited applause from the audience.
France and Africa: a dirty ‘cooking pot’
Arthur Banga, an Ivorian historian and political analyst at University Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan, couched his viewpoints in the future – in 2030.
“The CFA fund and its assorted reserve are far from your memories since we now have our own
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