World Cup: May France’s blacks and Muslims take their place in peace

What you need to know:

Vote determinant. Migration has become a very touchy issue. It is a vote winner and loser at the same time. For instance, the last French presidential election held on April 23, 2017 was indecisive as no candidate won a majority. A run-off was held on May 7, 2017 between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche and Marine Le Pen of the far right National Front.

Every July 14, France celebrates its national day. On this day in 1789, mobs in Paris stormed the heavily fortified fortress prison called the Bastille. This dreaded place housed prisoners held on arbitrary orders (lettres de cachet) of the monarchy that had lost touch with reality and the suffering of the people of France, who revolted against it. The storming was a great turning point in the French Revolution.

It eventually led to the abolition of Feudalism (August 4) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen (August 26, 1789.) This interesting and inspiring history provides the firm foundation of the Republic of France as we know it today. With it came the tripartite national motto of France liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity).

This year’s celebration had a bonus. The very next day July 15, 2018, the French Men’s National Football Team, aka Les Bleus (The Blues), had four goals against the Croatian national football team to take the FIFA World Cup 2018, in a breathless six goal thriller. It was their second World Cup triumph; the first one being the 1998 edition. This year’s feat was courtesy of a team that had about 80 per cent of the players being black and nearly 50 per cent Muslim.

The likes of N’Golo Kante, Kylian Mbappe, Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, Ousmane Dembele, Djibril Sidibe, Steve Mandanda, Nabil Fekir, Samuel Umititi, etc, have a migrant background and are not your typical Christian ‘White’ Frenchman. But most of them played run out as French men and played their hearts out with Mbappe and Pogba scoring wonderful goals in the Russian final. This is very significant in the world we live in today. Europe and America is now at crossroads. The ideology of capitalism and free market economics is under serious test. Cheaper goods, services and labour coming to European Union and the US have led to massive job losses and closure of businesses plus enterprises whose brands were once symbols of cerebral ingenuity, uncontested entrepreneurial capacity and pride of the West.

Today, China has bought very heavily into the hospitality, tourism, food and beverage, automobile manufacturing, automobile and other industries. A lot of manufacturing has been relocated to countries like Mexico, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Singapore and Malasia where cost of production, especially labour, is cheaper.

The politicians in the West are now on the back foot in as far as providing employment and the attendant welfare for the people, who vote them into office. They have taken measures like interfering with free trade and twisting the ‘invisible arms’ as envisaged by Adam Smith. Now the fad is protectionism, increasing of tariffs against foreign goods, deporting foreigners (called illegal immigrants), etc, to pacify their nationals by claiming that this will offer jobs to them. This has led to the popularity of the far right. This business of America for Americans disguised as making America great (some say white) again by Donald Trump falls in this category. The victims of this disguised xenophobia have been the colored people. Blacks stand out. They have taken it a step further by equating global terrorism with Islam and hence the rise of Islam-phobia in Europe and the West. They claim that the people should line behind them in limiting immigration for their own survival.

Migration has become a very touchy issue. It is a vote winner and loser at the same time. For instance, the last French presidential election held on April 23, 2017 was indecisive as no candidate won a majority. A run-off was held on May 7, 2017 between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche and Marine Le Pen of the far right National Front (FN.)
Marine Le Pen, the poster girl of far right politics, never shied away from Islam phobic and Xenophobic sentiments. In fact, they were the basis of her campaign. That she forced a run off is very telling. Luckily, Macron won by a decisive margin on May 7.

Marine is the daughter of the former far-right leader of the Front National (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen, who argued in 1998 after France won the World Cup that some of the team were “foreigners”, who didn’t know how to sing the national anthem - La Marseillaise. Now the French, who are very proud of this momentous victory, must do some soul-searching. They must reflect on the motto liberté, égalité, fraternité.

They have to speak honestly to themselves about liberty of people to live and work anywhere in the world, including France. They have to make up their minds on the equality of men - be they black or white or whatever they profess whether it is Christianity or Islam.

Lastly they have to face the reality that there is need for fraternity in order for mankind to live in peace and harmony.
Vive la France! May blacks and Muslims take their deserved place in France and live there as a right not a favour.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. [email protected].
Twitter:@nsengoba