The independence of Reunion Island.
Speech delivered on January 21, 2025 in Baku (Azerbaijan) during the conference entitled "The independence of Reunion Island: looking back at France's colonial legacy and the path to sovereignty"
Thank you.
Good morning everyone.
Thank you for your presence and for the presence of all delegations as well.
Let me briefly introduce myself, I am Cédric Famibelle-Pronzola. I was born in Martinique. I have been living in Reunion Island for several years and I am advocating for its independence within Ka-Ubuntu. First, I thank Almighty God for the good travel conditions and a smooth arrival from Reunion Island. As we say in my mother tongue, Martinican, "Bondyé gwan" which means God is great.
I also thank the Baku Initiative Group, Mr. Abbas Abbasov and all the staff who made this meeting possible.
Thank you for allowing us to highlight the crimes and injustices committed by the homeland of "human rights," namely France.
I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the people of Azerbaijan, who commemorated "Qara Yanvar" yesterday. This tragedy of January 20, 1990, shows us the determination of a people to free themselves. It also reminds us of the sacrifices made for freedom and justice.
So today I am speaking about the links between our struggle and France's loss of influence in Africa.
As your president Ilham Aliyev very aptly remarked during a recent interview:
"Today, the Macron regime is transforming France into, in reality, a failed state."
I would add that this is indeed the case internationally, but also nationally.
Let's take two quick examples at the national level.
In France, patients die in hospitals because they have not been treated. They wait on stretchers in corridors and sometimes even in parking lots. And they die in these parking lots and corridors. What I'm saying is not only true but very easy to verify by anyone. Still in France, there is an explosion of cases of 4 or 5-year-old children with suicidal thoughts. Children of 4 or 5 years old.
Who would want to depend on such a country? Who would want to depend on a country where the suicide rate has multiplied by 7 in 10 years?
Personally, I do not wish such a country for my people, nor for any other people, in fact.
Let's dwell for a moment on France's failures at the international level.
Ka-Ubuntu being a pan-Africanist party, we are closely following what is happening on our continent.
France is losing influence in Africa, that's undeniable.
After its eviction from the countries of the AES, the Sahel States Alliance, therefore Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. We see that Senegal, Chad, and even Ivory Coast no longer want military bases on their territory. There have indeed been declarations to this effect from the leaders of these 3 countries. So, Senegal, Chad, and Ivory Coast. But we are waiting to see actions.
What is certain in any case is that we are in a favorable context.
As the brother from Guadeloupe would say, "we have a window of opportunity"!
Let's not deprive ourselves of using it.
We have a certainty. The actions we will take in cooperation with the Baku Initiative Group will put a definitive end to the rest of the French colonial empire. French territory will be confined to its geographical limit, the European continent. No more, no less.
It is its colonies that keep France alive. Our territories are used to enrich it at the expense of our respective peoples.
For all these reasons, God willing, we will seize our independence by all necessary means.
I repeat, God willing, we will seize our independence by all necessary means.
Only struggle liberates.
Thank you for your attention.
This article was written by Cédric Famibelle-Pronzola and is available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike)