President Emmanuel Macron of France opened an Africa summit this week in Nairobi, a city where almost no one speaks French.
The decision to hold the decades-old summit outside of France or Francophone Africa for the first time reflected what analysts say is a reconfiguration of French diplomacy on the continent at a time when relations with some of France’s former colonies are in tatters.
It also showed the ways in which African nations are benefiting from new opportunities to diversify diplomatic partnerships, analysts said.
On Monday, Mr. Macron talked up the possibilities of new collaboration at the two-day summit, which is being attended by roughly 30 African heads of state and government. Business leaders, including Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian who is the continent’s richest investor, were among the attendees.
“A lot of solutions are made in the U.S. or made in China,” Mr. Macron said as he opened the Africa Forward summit alongside President William Ruto of Kenya. “I think we have a common fight,” he added, “which is to build our strategic autonomy for Europe and Africa. And if we build it together, we will be much stronger.”
As evidence of that commitment, Mr. Macron announced about $27 billion of investment in Africa and invited African business leaders to invest in France.
“We are not the predators of this century,” Mr. Macron told The Africa Report, a Paris-based magazine, in an interview before the summit, addressing France’s brutal colonial history in Africa.
In one viral moment during the summit on Monday, Mr. Macron got up from his seat at a youth forum and interrupted a presentation to demand that the audience stop chatting and listen to the speakers in silence or leave the room. “This is a total lack of respect,” he said. Some applauded his intervention, while others on social media chided the president for using what they said was a patronizing tone.
Mr. Macron has sought to distinguish himself from his predecessors by pointing out that he is the first French president to be born after the colonial era. He has vowed to restore African artifacts looted during France’s rule.
Yet the talk of a reset in relations — and the outreach to countries where English is spoken — comes against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration of France’s influence in Francophone African countries.
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Ivory Coast, an ally of France, last year became the latest in a string of West African countries that demanded the withdrawal of French troops. France’s 9-year operation to combat Islamist militants in the Sahel also ended in 2022 after the government in Paris fell out with a military junta in Mali.
“My reading of Macron’s effort is that he is trying to save face, having lost the traditional friends in West Africa,” said Amukowa Anangwe, a Kenyan political scientist who taught at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania. “He is seeking a fallback in other African countries.”
The France-Africa summit is one of many meetings held between African leaders and non-African heads of state. Russia, China and Japan each hold regular Africa summits. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy held the second Italy-Africa summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. She then attended the annual summit of the African Union, the continent’s main intergovernmental body.
President Trump, who gutted U.S. humanitarian assistance to Africa last year, hosted five West African leaders at the White House last July to discuss economic cooperation.
The gatherings are of particular interest to African leaders, as they offer the chance to broaden sources of investment at a time of shifting global alliances, analysts say.
“Given the interest in the continent, African nationals have the chance to negotiate for better deals,” said Macharia Munene, a lecturer in international relations at the United States International University in Nairobi.
Hosting the summit has also offered Mr. Ruto of Kenya a chance to emphasize his diplomatic bona fides ahead of what is expected to be a tough re-election campaign next year.
Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper on Monday carried a picture of Mr. Ruto in conversation with Mr. Macron with the headline, “Show of Might.”
Brian O. Otieno contributed reporting.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is the East Africa bureau chief for The New York Times, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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