While most of the world inscribed the word "despot" on Omar Bongo's epitaph, French presidents past and present went out of their way this week to eulogize him.
Nicolas Sarkozy hailed him as "a great and loyal friend," while predecessor Jacques Chirac called the late president of Gabon a "sage" who fostered peace across Africa.
The gushing words of praise from France's leaders for a man who clung to power for 42 years are a reflection of what critics have long called France's too-cozy relationship with its former colonies. Its long-standing policy of patronage of African leaders has allowed France to retain some of its old colonial influence. But democracy activists say it's come in return for indulging rampant corruption and unchecked political power.
Many hope that the incestuous network of political and business favors known as "Francafrique" will end with Bongo, who died of a heart attack Monday after four decades as president of the Central African nation.
Sarkozy came to office vowing to end the web of influence, but old habits may be dying hard: In a final homage, French officials announced Thursday that Sarkozy would attend Bongo's funeral next week. To date no other Western leaders have announced plans to attend.
"Anyone that cares about democracy will not cry at the death of President Bongo," said leftist French politician Noel Mamere on French radio. "He was the symbol of all that we have been denouncing for the past 30 years _ that is of 'Francafrique,' this incestuous, mafia-like relationship between the governments of Africa and France."
Powerful French oil and other companies long used ties to African leaders to win access to lucrative resources in former colonies and across the continent, helped by a coterie of well-paid French political advisers. A son of former President Francois Mitterrand is currently on trial for alleged corruption involving arms sales to Angola. The French military has been accused of backing political ties with guns, propping up allies in civil conflicts from Chad to Burkina Faso.
A former prime minister of the Central African Republic, Martin Ziguele, said he thinks it's time for Francafrique to "disappear."
"Francophone Africa certainly maintained historic ties with France. But today we are more and more globalized," he said by telephone from Bangui.
Bongo was only 30 in 1966 when he was tapped to become vice president to Gabon's first leader _ a decision that already belied France's influence, says Douglas Yates, an expert on Gabon who teaches at the American Graduate School in Paris. When Gabonese President Leon M'Ba came to a Paris hospital to undergo chemotherapy for cancer, then-French leader Charles de Gaulle sent one of his top aides to coax the dying man to take Bongo as his running mate in the upcoming election.
M'Ba reluctantly agreed and a few months later, when he was re-elected president, Bongo was elected too _ and as soon as the ailing leader died, Bongo took over the reins of the oil-rich nation.
Bongo "had no friends or allies and the French saw someone who would owe everything to them," says Yates. "His French was impeccable and he loved French culture _ so he gave all the signs that he would be a reliable partner."
With each passing decade, French presidents looked the other way as Bongo amassed power and fortune. Opposition parties were banned until 1990. He was so intent on absolute control that for part of his time in office, he held multiple posts _ including prime minister, minister of defense, minister of information and minister of the interior.
Even as democracy began sweeping across the nations neighboring Gabon, Bongo changed the constitution in 2003 to eliminate term limits, allowing him to continue running for president for life.
Reports of his excesses were legion. A French investigation into property bought by the late leader in France turned up a reported 37 apartments in Paris alone. In just one year _ 1985 _ he deposited over $50 million into his Citibank account in Libreville, according to a report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which launched a probe.
Asked to testify about the source of Bongo's wealth, the Citibank official who handled the president's account told investigators that Bongo sent couriers to pick up suitcases of cash from the various oil companies that operated in Gabon.
But despite mounting evidence of corruption, his relationship with France remained solid, said Nicholas Shaxson, a West Africa expert at the London think tank Chatham House, who chronicles France's corrupt dealings with Bongo in a recently published book.
Now that he is dead, French politicians are beginning to speak out, revealing the shady dealings that cemented Bongo's relationship with France.
A day after his death, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing told French TV that he broke off his ties with Bongo during France's 1981 presidential campaign after realizing the African president was bankrolling his rival _ Chirac.
"We do not accept money transfers to French candidates from foreign countries and when I learned that Bongo was financially helping Jacques Chirac, I called Bongo and I told him ... 'You're very nice but you are actually financing the campaign of my opponent," said Giscard d'Estaing. "There was a dead silence ... He said, 'Ah, so you know?' From that moment on, I cut off my personal relationship with him," he said. Chirac's office did not publicly respond to the accusation.
Giscard d'Estaing, too, has been rumored to have had shady ties to African leaders. He was shamed back in 1981 into selling off jewels given to him as a gift by the megalomaniac Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a former dictator of the Central African Republic, whose chef accused him of eating political opponents. In 1977 when he decided that he wanted to be crowned "emperor" in a ceremony modeled on the coronation of Napoleon, the French allegedly footed much of the $22 million bill _ including a crown of diamonds, a throne shaped like an eagle and 60 Mercedes-Benz cars for his guests.
When Sarkozy became president of France last year, he vowed to no longer let personal allegiances dictate his country's relationship with Africa. Yet on his first presidential tour of Africa, he made a point of visiting Gabon _ a generous gesture to Bongo and a move that many saw as a bow to the doyen of African power.
French Secretary of State for Cooperation Jean-Marie Bockel was asked to resign soon after he publicly called on Sarkozy to "kill off" Franceafrique and criticized the president for not doing enough to break with the past. Bongo reportedly complained to Sarkozy about the comments.
"I think Nicolas Sarkozy discovered that shoes are meant for wearing," says Yates. "He inherited these shoes. At first he rejected them. And then he put them on. And then he decided to wear them, like all the French presidents before him."
___
Callimachi reported from Dakar, Senegal.
