Senegal, France, Africa, Israel & the West: What is the "thread that connects them?"

Ethnocentrism can be one of the biggest threats to authoring point-on geopolitical and strategic analyses.

Per Oxford Languages, ethnocentrism is the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.

So how might one defeat their own ethnocentrism?

Answer: by familiarizing oneself with the culture, races, religions, languages, politics, arts and cuisines of the individuals whom they are trying to interact with. That at least diminishes one's tendency to adopt their own cultural biases during an analytical process.

I speak about ethnocentrism because the Western world for the most part simply doesn't understand geopolitics with respect to Africa.

I am sorry to say that the US has absolutely no "Grand Strategy" and its tactical blunders in part are born from geopolitical and ethno-cultural shortsightedness.

Let's all of "us Westerners" at least try to look at Africa for a moment with a collective non-Western, continental lens, so-to-speak, from a probable African perspective - and use Senegal's recent "expulsion" of the French forces as a showcase for larger-scale geopolitics, from two nation states to a broader pan-African perspective.

I am going to try to keep this short and sweet as the topic is suitable for at least an 80 page book ....

On Thursday November 28, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye ordered the French military to depart from Senegal. This is the fourth time France has been ordered out of an African State over the past three years or so.

The following African nations preceded Senegal:

Mali (February 2022 to August 2022)

Burkina Faso (January 2023)

Niger Republic (August 2023)

While many of Chad's citizens are not keen on a French presence in the country, France is still involved in the regional defense of the Sahel with the nation. The Central African Republic or CAR has also seen a lot of anti-French sentiment, which may be in part due to the growth of Wagner Group ranks within the country.

Thus there are two more countries "on deck" which have the potential to at some point - at least consider following in Senegal's footsteps. This almost looks like a trend ....

So what could possibly be interpreted via a non-Western Model of Analytics with respect to Senegal's request to have the French military vacate the country?

Instead of focusing solely on Senegal and France - what does this recent "French-expulsion" indicate for the Western nations ensemble, that have up until recently enjoyed near-global domination, which includes Africa?

What many Westerners have failed to recognize is that Israel is actually beginning to play a larger role in current Afro-Western dynamics with respect to American presence in Africa - and here is why:

America's endless support for Israel's devastating and lethal incursion into Gaza and the West Bank is certainly not earning the US any more allies in the "Global South," within the ephemeral North-South geopolitical paradigm, which includes Africa. The US has "lost face" in the eyes of many nations.

This will inevitably result in many African countries minimizing their level of cooperation with Western states, both militarily and economically, especially as the BRICS countries gain more economic leverage within the global marketplace.

South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia are already members and more African nations will soon follow suit.

There is (rightfully) a collective African "pissed-off-ness" with respect to colonialism - and thus the presence of the Americans, the French, the British and other Western countries in African states is no longer as welcome as it once was - if it ever was at all; and this phenomenon will gain more momentum over time.

Due to the blood legacies left by colonial powers since the Portuguese captured Ceuta (present-day Morocco) in 1415, anti-Westernism has not been an uncommon continental sentiment - but now the anti-colonialist mind-frame is really gaining steam to an extent that the Westerners still are not cognizant of yet.

So from many African perspectives - often revealed in social media exchanges and commentary, the British and American support for Israel's lethal forays into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are symbolic of an extreme colonial arrogance that has not changed after 609 years of hyper-exploitation and the unabashed flaunting human rights. Indeed it has perpetuated, flourished and is rearing its ugly head yet again.

Continentally this will be perceived as a simple perseverance of that six-century old, colonialist sense of entitlement with respect to the continent and its people.

Subsequent to WWII the US has oft-been perceived as a colonialistic entity, but with the recent Mid-East farrago there has been a rather impressive geopolitical shift.

In regards to Africa, there will definitely be blowback in the future with respect to Western and US military endeavors on the continent due to America's and other nation's support for Israel over the past 14 months ....

This current situation in the Middle East has been a game changer on the international stage. While America is still a world power, its capabilities and "foreign initiatives for US cooperation" are rapidly dwindling. While the US has been historically perceived as a colonialistic and exploitive power since WWII, its "profile" has really "solidified" and been "proven" over the past fourteen months - and not to America's benefit.

#senegal #israel #brics #africa #france #african #dutch #boers #gaza #colonialism #colonialist #slavery #genocide #apartheid #iran #mali #chad #burkinafaso #Brazil #Russia #India #China, #SouthAfrica #Iran #Egypt #Ethiopia #UAE #niger #conflict #resources #bipolar #gold #diamonds #resources #mining #ussr #communism #military #british #french #colony #westbank #lebanon #syria #palestine