© AP Photo/ Sam Mednick/TASS

When Notre Dame burned down, a thought flashed through my mind that France was coming to an end. And not only France we fell in love with from afar owing to its fine literature and stories about Paris, which my friend, who has seen a lot, called "the best city in the world"; owing to the amazing movies that flourished in the twentieth century but sank into oblivion along with the epoch; owing to the amazing singers who brought us great songs in melodious French. We loved that France – many in absentia. But now it is gone, with no single argument to knock down this sad thesis.

As the Notre Dame roof collapsed, we lost the image of that imperial France which once created its own colonial sphere — from Africa to Indochina. Among those taking pictures with flames that engulfed the cathedral, there were numerous descendants of immigrants from former French colonies in Africa and the Middle East. Sure thing! For them, the tragedy symbolized redemption for colonial wrongdoings. And they got the idea that the "careless Parisians" would soon have their world fall apart, as God left France…

And now, we stand a chance to observe the former French colonies of Central and West Africa one by one literally squeeze out France’s presence, influence and even diplomats from their territory. Would this happen in a single country, one could attribute the result to its particularly active leaders — you never know when you may fly into a rage... However, now that it has become a system, the unanimous expulsion of the French from Africa can hardly be called an "accident" anymore.

A few years ago, newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron went on a tour of his country’s former colonies, posturing himself as the one who cared. Back then, no one would articulate the genuine cause for voyages of the kind, of which there were quite a lot. But truth will always out and Paris has turned out vitally interested in continuing an unbalanced exchange with its former colonies to take their resources for peanuts and sell them ten folds as much in the world markets. You don't have to look far for examples: the French exported uranium from Niger for $11 per kg, with its market value exceeding $100. The same is true for other natural resources that France pumped out of its now formally independent partners failing to withdraw from the strongest ever neocolonial exploitation.

The West African finances have also been under Paris’ firm control. The currency system invented for them back in 1945 was called "CFA franc" (abbreviated from "colonies françaises d'Afrique" — French African colonies). Later, it was modified into "la Communauté financière africaine" (African financial community) and "la Coopération financière en Afrique Centrale" (financial cooperation in Central Africa). Despite the changing names, the point stands: France has maintained a tight grip on its former colonies’ money. The thing is that these countries were obliged to place 65% of their foreign exchange reserves in special accounts with the French Treasury, i.e. to deposit money for "consignment storage" to their former colonizers. This "colonial tax" is reported in 14 African countries, making Paris get huge money under this scheme — the equivalent of about 85% of the GDP of these African nations! Why are we still amazed by poverty flourishing there? Go and try to live on 15% of your salary and you will see France’s rigid grip on African wealth.

Plundering was arranged along the monetary track as well, which calls into question the "independence" of former (?) colonies. France’s financial system put on its feet by local bankers during the Great French Revolution, featured no malfunction in this case. "Freedom! Equality! Brotherhood!" people cried out loud back then in the streets of Paris, knowing that all the benefits only embrace the French. And to make sure that the French lacked nothing while creating a "justice society", Africa had to provide them with all the resources lacking in Europe. Hence the colonial seizures meant to provide a material base for nice r-r-revolutionary slogans. Having mastered the art of cutting off heads of the august personages, the French embarked upon exterminating the Negroes with no compunction…

France long felt comfortable in Africa. Even a decade ago, it took an active part in overthrowing Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, while elegantly keeping to buy the ex-colonial population’s elite with prospects of life in Paris. When I came to work in Senegal, I was immediately recommended to get a good look at a bakery in downtown Dakar featuring croissants delivered by air from Paris at dawn, so that the locals felt "a little bit on the Champs-Elysees."

It worked for a while — France was respected and feared, and many fairly forward-minded representatives of these countries moved there for permanent residence, but their descendants have a different view. Even France’s two-time world champion soccer team comprising immigrants from former colonies who became national heroes, is not going to work anymore. Ethnic riots have been commonplace in France over the last few years.

But let’s get back to Africa. As dialectics say, "quantity has turned into quality," and French Africa is simply disappearing from the map as a concept before our very eyes. In a matter of years — starting 2020 through present — the Central African Republic, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, and now Gabon have been rushing out of the French zone of influence at neck-breaking speed. As a witty author noted, President Macron seems to have decided to live in history of both France and Africa as a "liberator".

The result will go beyond politics to echo throughout France mottoed "The Emperor has no clothes on!", because the country’s abundant brand-new arrivals will start showing what they are made of — an especially dangerous thing amid Europe’s across-the-board crisis. The authorities have already faced a dilemma whom to help financially. People suffering from the piled-up issues are being crushed with taxes and unemployment, as those at the wheel have forgotten about "freedom, equality and brotherhood", because it is very dangerous to treat millions of migrants to the "social assistance pie". The boomerang of colonial plunder is back, and the burnt-out Notre Dame will no longer protect the French from the wrathful descendants of those whom they cruelly colonized. In the article titled "The History of French colonial terror in West Africa, which left a trail of corpses behind," you will find lots of things that eventually shaped Africa’s response to their oppressors.

Yes, the outcome will prove a resounding economic failure to France. Let's note the range of resources pumped out by the French. Experts cite the following figures: 80 percent of exports from Gabon are cheap oil needed by French refineries; other African countries provide 70 percent of raw materials used in France for metallurgy, chemical and food industries. Chromium, uranium, copper, manganese ores, bauxite, rare-earth metals, oil, mercury, graphite, cane sugar and other things have been shipped from African countries at low prices.

Here one cannot but recollect Ostap Bender saying: "With such happiness — and at liberty!" However, even the longest day has an end... An end has apparently come for the entire system "le Pacte Colonial France Afrique" (the France – Africa colonial pact) providing that "France has the primary right to buy or refuse from any natural resources found on the lands of French-speaking countries." Thus, the Panafrican Visions magazine writes, "even if the African countries can get better prices elsewhere, they can’t sell to anybody until France says it doesn’t need the resources."

It's all over! There is no more room for unlimited plunder or, intelligently speaking, "unbalanced exchange" between France and its former Françafrique. It still remains to consign "equality and brotherhood" to the ash heap of history, so that colonialist hypocrisy turns into "unacceptable damage"...

"Nothing passes on earth without leaving a trace," as the song goes. The French have left a great deal of dirty footmarks in Africa, and the later will now have pleasure in throwing all this dirt back on them. "Niger’s top court approved the immediate expulsion of France’s ambassador, revoking his diplomatic immunity," news agencies report…