AFPNiger’s military leaders have renamed streets and monuments after France, in the latest move to cut ties with the country’s former colonial power.
Charles de Gaulle Avenue in the capital Niamey is now Djibo Bakary Avenue in honor of the Nigerian politician who played an important role in the West African country’s fight for independence.
“Most of our avenues and streets… bear simple names that are reminders of the suffering and bullying that our people have had to endure,” said government spokesman Major Abdramane Amadou. endured during the colonial period”.
Niger’s relations with France and other Western allies deteriorated after President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a coup last year.
Like its military-led neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger called on Russia for military support as a jihadist insurgency threatened the region – and the three countries worked together to establish what they call it the Union of Sahel States.
Under Bazoum, France had more than 1,500 soldiers stationed in Niger to help fight jihadist groups linked to both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. All withdrew at the end of last year.
A ceremony was held in Niamey on Tuesday to mark various name changes, including a boulevard once named after a French general, as well as a war memorial built to commemorate remember those who died in World War I and World War II.
It now pays “respect to all the civilian and military victims of colonial rule to this day”.
Charles de Gaulle was a soldier and politician who established the French government in exile during World War II when Nazi German forces overran France. He became leader of the Free French Forces.
Many Africans in French colonies volunteered to fight for the Free French Forces, although many were also conscripted.
About 400,000 people came from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, and more than 70,000 from Senegal and other sub-Saharan colonies. They took part in the Allied landings in southern France in August 1944, which played a key role in driving the Nazis from the area.
In fact, as part of a reassessment of its colonial past, France has begun renaming some streets and squares after African heroes of World War II four years ago.
AFPAnother upgraded site in Niamey is a stone monument depicting French colonial officer and explorer Parfait-Louis Monteil. He traveled from Senegal in 1890 through West Africa, writing a book about his two-year journey.
His image has now been replaced by a plaque with a portrait of Burkina Faso’s iconic revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, a charismatic pan-Africanist who was assassinated in 1987 .
During his time in power, he adopted an anti-imperialist foreign policy aimed at challenging the dominance of France, which retained enormous influence in many of its former colonies in Africa.
Another significant name change is Niamey’s Place de La Francophonie, named after the group of French-speaking cantons.
Instead, it will be called Place de l’Alliance des Etats du Sahel, after the country’s new federation with Burkina Faso and Mali.
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