France tries to reset policy in Africa

F RANCE “MUST look history in the face and recognise the share of suffering that it inflicted on the Rwandan people”. So declared President Emmanuel Macron at the genocide memorial in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, on May 27th (pictured). “In ignoring the warnings of the most clear-sighted observers,” he said, “France bore damning responsibility in a chain of events that led to the worst.” He hoped survivors of the genocide might “perhaps forgive” France.

Mr Macron is the first French president to recognise his country’s responsibility in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, mostly Tutsis, in 1994. France backed and armed the Hutu regime that planned and carried out the massacres. French leaders long claimed their country had “misunderstood” what was going on. Rwanda, under Tutsi leadership, cut diplomatic ties with France in 2006. In his speech, Mr Macron disappointed some survivors of the genocide by not explicitly apologising. But Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, said his words were “more powerful than an apology”.

In Paris Mr Macron’s acknowledgment is considered part of an effort to reset policy in Africa, using history to reshape current ties. Last year France returned 27 works of art to Benin and Senegal, after Mr Macron promised to start handing back artefacts taken under colonial rule. He also agreed...