These aren’t the ravings of a senile old man like supremacists in the US-led West’s Golden Billion might try to casually dismiss them as but a deliberately racist attack against all Africans that’s being made against them in the New Cold War context of the continent-wide Russian-French proxy war.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who in mid-October infamously implied that Africa is a “jungle” that’s “invading” the European “garden” and threatening its “identity”, is back at it again with his racist remarks after ridiculously claiming that Africans never heard of President Putin or even Russia. This insult to their intelligence is even worse than French President Macron’s related one from over the summer when he implied that they’re supposedly so stupid that Moscow can easily manipulate them.
According to the EU’s top diplomat, “Russia is able to deflect blame, twist realty and find an audience in some parts of world. I have seen in TV screens these young African people on the streets of Bamako [Mali's capital] with billboards saying '[Russian President Vladimir] Putin, thanks. You have saved Donbas and now you will save us.' It is shocking. You can consider that these people do not know where Donbas is or maybe they do not even know who Putin is.”
These aren’t the ravings of a senile old man like supremacists in the US-led West’s Golden Billion might try to casually dismiss them as but a deliberately racist attack against all Africans that’s being made against them in the New Cold War context of the continent-wide Russian-French proxy war. Moscow’s soft power and security support is aimed at facilitating and securing their latest anti-imperialist advances respectively while Paris is desperately trying to cling to its fading “sphere of influence” there.
It's not a coincidence either that Borrell launched his diatribe against Malians either since their interim government is an African pioneer in proudly standing up to France after kicking its troops out of their country and recently banning all of its “NGO” intelligence fronts. This pro-sovereignty policy has proven to be immensely popular too as evidenced by people taking to the streets to rally in their leaders’ support, which is what the EU’s top diplomat was referring to in his racist attack.
Considering the geostrategic context and Borrell’s professional position, it can therefore be concluded that his latest racist attack against Africans in claiming that they never heard of President Putin or even Russia is the EU’s puerile reaction to them rising up against France’s neo-colonial hegemony. Instead of calmly acknowledging that Africans are inspired by President Putin’s Global Revolutionary Manifesto that he articulated over the past two seasons, he’d rather pretend that they’re ignorant of global affairs.
This is extremely condescending and reinforces the reality that the Golden Billion is racist to the core despite its unconvincing denials to the contrary, especially when remembering Borrell’s comparison of their continent to a “jungle” that’s allegedly “invading” his “garden” and threatening its “identity”. If there’s any silver lining to this latest episode it’s that the EU is powerless to reverse Africa’s recent anti-imperialist advances, hence why its leaders like Borrell and Macron are resorting to racism out of spite.
I'd bet 50% of Americans couldn't locate Russia on a map