Something sinister has been happening these past few weeks and you might have heard of
it – or not. In April 2023, the French government started expelling Africans from Mayotte, an
island off the Eastern Coast of Africa – and over 1,800 French police officers have since been
sent to the island from France as part of Operation Wuambushu which seeks to send back
over 10,000 migrants without official papers to the Comoran island of Anjouan.

Operation Wuambushu, which primarily seeks to expel Comorians, has also left thousands
of Africans from Rwanda, Burundi and Madagascar facing similar fate. Wambushu means to
‘take back’ in Mayottan language, and the choice of name for this heinous operation is a
classical illustration of what Ngugi wa Thiong’o points us toward when he says language is a
weapon – for France has usurped and weaponised an African word against African people,
demolishing shanty-towns which make up roughly 40% of the housing in Mayotte and
conducting forced repatriation under the guise of combatting delinquency.

What exactly is France taking back?
I first came across Mayotte a few years ago while browsing the internet and asked myself,
“What the hell is Mayotte?” I subsequently did a search, and came to learn that it is one of
the four islands that make up the Comoros archipelago off the Eastern Coast of Africa. The
people of this island are referred to as Mahorais. I also learnt that this small island is an
overseas territory of France, and that the Union of Comoros claims ownership of the island.

But, wait a minute… does France still administer territories in Africa today?

In 1843, France gained control over Mayotte together with the three other islands that
today make up the Comoros archipelago, declaring them French territories. The four islands
were made a province of Madagascar to form the Madagascar and Dependencies colony
between 1912 and 1946 when the Comoros archipelago was designated as a French
overseas territory with its capital in Dzaoudzi, Mayotte. Most land was expropriated before
and during this colonial era, condemning the local population to poverty and misery on
patches of the islands.

After more than a century of colonialism, a referendum on independence was held across
the islands in 1975. Ngazidja, Nzwani and Mwali (also known as Grande Comore, Anjouan
and Moheli) islands voted to be part of the Union of Comoros and declared independence –
while Maoré (Mayotte) voted to remain part of France which administered the island as a
collectivité territorial despite objections from Comoros.

In 1979, the United Nations passed a resolution recognizing Comoros claim on the island.
France did not bat an eyelid and continued occupying the island – eventually designating it
as an overseas territory in 2011 following a controversial referendum. In the tradition of
political interference in her former colonies, France has repeatedly interfered in the affairs
of Comoros, which has faced more than 20 successful or attempted coups since
independence in 1975.

France is today expelling ‘illegal immigrants’ from Mayotte, acting blind to the fact that
before 1843, Mayotte was part of the islands that make up the Comoros archipelago and
that people moved freely across the islands – and even farther to Madagascar and other
territories along the Eastern coast of Africa. It is important to note that the people of
Mayotte and Comoros share a common language, religion and even have kinship ties to
date. In essence, no one is a foreigner here.

What right does France have to expel Africans from Africa?
It is strange that in 2023, there exist territories in Africa and elsewhere that France
administers and refers to as overseas territories.

According to the Welcome to France website, “There are 12 (French) overseas territories:
Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia, French
Polynesia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, the French Southern
and Antarctic Lands, and the Wallis and Futuna islands, which together have almost 2.6
million inhabitants. Because of its overseas territories, France is the only EU country that is
present in three separate oceans. They help consolidate France’s second place worldwide in
terms of maritime reach and make a telling contribution to the rollout of the country’s
maritime and “blue growth” policies.”

In more plain terms, courtesy of ‘overseas territories’ like Mayotte, France has a physical
footprint on three different oceans. The ports on these territories and islands enable France
to protect its interests by controlling marine territories and key trade routes, as has been
the pattern for Centuries.

France was the third-largest player in the slave trade after Great Britain and Portugal, and in
that epoch protected critical trade routes to guarantee her trade in humans and the
unhindered flow of agricultural produce and other extractives from the colonies. Slavery
and colonialism were economic projects, and the French colonial project was no exception.
It extracted from the nature and land, subjugated and humiliated the colonized people and
used brutal force to maintain dominance over them – all for profit to the cold, insatiable
centre. French maritime trade in enslaved Africans and in commodities such as sugar and
coffee from the plantations in the colonies provided substantial capital for investment in
shipbuilding, plantation agriculture and heavy industry – while the port cities of Nantes,
Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Le Havre thrived and expanded on the basis of the trans-Atlantic
slave trade and trade in commodities produced by enslaved Africans.

According to the French National Institute of Statistics (INSEE), nearly half of Mayotte’s
350,000 inhabitants do not have French nationality, but a third of the island’s foreigners
were born there. These are the people France seeks to expel from Mayotte. Those of them
born in Mayotte to undocumented Comorian parents for instance, are not allowed French
citizenship, whilst concurrently remaining unregistered in the Comoros, effectively
rendering them stateless.

Mayotte itself remains largely underdeveloped to date, and it is estimated that around 80%
of the population lives below the poverty line. The French government, meanwhile, invests
more resources in France per capita compared to its overseas territories resulting in higher
standards of living in France. Because of the resultant underinvestment in education and
inadequate infrastructure, many Mahorais remain uneducated. 2021 data from the French
INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) reveals that while the
employment rate in mainland France stood at 63.4% in that year, it was only a measly 29.5%
in Mayotte.

It is of importance to us that a huge portion of the Mahorais people do not agree with the
decision to expel ‘illegal immigrants’ from the island, for many of the so-called immigrants
are their relations either through historical kinship ties or through more recent marriages.
Their voices have however been stifled through punitive measures, which include the
authorities forbidding protests about Operation Wuambushu.

Perhaps the only thing more alarming than the events France has set in motion is some of
the sentiments emanating from a small section Mahorais who consider themselves superior
to their brothers and sisters from Comoros and other African territories courtesy of Mayotte
being a French overseas territory and them having French citizenship and passports.
Speaking on France 1 television, Salime Mdere, Vice President of the State Assembly of
Mayotte, recently stated that “some of them (immigrants) should be killed if necessary”. To
help further the old and tired narrative around ‘increased crime’ that is being used to justify
the expulsion, Mdere added that, “I do not accept the characterisation of these (Comorian
migrants) as young people or children. They are criminals, rogue terrorists”.

That Mdere continues parroting the ‘crime’ line in the absence of scientific evidence to
prove that people from Comoros are behind the alleged crimes is a pointer to the
psychological effects of colonialism. It additionally shows us that the comprador class that
Mdere is representative of will stop at nothing to show their loyalty to their masters. Such
are the creatures Frantz Fanon reminds us of, the colonized intellectuals who must
eventually be trampled by the wheels of history.

Moving forward:
The Comorian flag has four stars representing the islands of Ngazidja (Grande Comore),
Ndzuwani (Anjouan), Mwali (Moheli) and Maoré (Mayotte). Comoros has criticized the
expulsion of Africans from Mayotte – which she recognizes as her territory – as a human
rights violation and refuses to accept expelled Comorians. Comorian President, Azali
Assoumani, even visited Paris in the second week of May 2023 to hold talks with French
President Emmanuel Macron over this dispute. Nothing concrete resulted out of these talks,
for Macron’s government is using the expulsions to both divert attention from the pension
reforms and protests in France whilst concurrently attempting to appeal to right-wing
French voters who maintain a firm anti-immigration stance.

In addition to going against the African Union positions on decolonization and forced return,
the continued colonization of Mayotte contravenes UN General Assembly resolution 1514

of 1960 on decolonization that guarantees ‘the national unity and territorial integrity’ of
newly independent states, and UN General Assembly resolution 31/4 of 1976 that calls upon
the government of France to ‘withdraw immediately from the Comorian island of Mayotte,
an integral part of the independent Republic of Comoros, and to respect its sovereignty’.

At this particular juncture, Comoros, which was elected to the rotating chairpersonship of
the African Union during 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and
Government in February 2023, should use its new position to champion the Mayotte
question and resuscitate the question of decolonization at the continental level and beyond.

Most importantly, this moment and the events around it – which coincide with the 60th
commemoration of Africa Liberation Day – demand that all who believe in and advocate for
African unity, justice, peace and dignity must stand in defense of the people of Mayotte,
and especially in defense of our African brothers and sisters who France seeks to expel from
Africa. It is today clear that as opposed to expulsions, the people of Mayotte are certain to
be better served by frameworks that open up pathways toward self-determination, thus
enabling them to conduct their affairs as sovereign people of Africa.

On this 60th African Liberation Day, all African people, popular movements, organizations
and revolutionary organizations spread across the continent should find a way to synergize
their ideas, thoughts and actions around decolonization and give direction to the unfinished
African liberation struggle.

Love, land and freedom,
The team at Mwamko.