France’s Mr. Africa spills the beans on secret money

It was January 1998 and Robert Bourgi was waiting to see the president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, in the front room of his seaside palace in Libreville.

He was there to raise funds for the upcoming French presidential election on behalf of center-right Gaullist councilor Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris.

Who then should be admitted to the same antechamber but Roland Dumas, former French foreign minister and right-hand man of Socialist President François Mitterrand, Chirac’s main rival.

“Hello, Bourgi,” said Dumas. “I believe we are here for the same purpose.”

Claiming a position, Dumas entered Bongo’s office first. Appearing after a while, he said to Bourgi: “Don’t worry, there’s still a little left!”

Downloaded from Bourgi’s recently published writings They know that I know everything – My life in Françafriquethe anecdote says it all about the money laundering and interdependence that has long linked French and African politics.

For forty years Robert Bourgi was at the center of it all.

Born in Senegal in 1945 to Lebanese Shiite parents, he rose to become a reference for a generation of African leaders – from Omar Bongo in Gabon to Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo and Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso.

And in Paris, he inherited the legend Jacques Foccart – a post-colonial Gaullist. Françafrique the system, and its arrangements for influence and protection, markets, materials, muscle… and money.

From the first years after the Second World War – when it was the center of mobilization in favor of the French post-war leader Charles de Gaulle – Africa and its former colonies in France were a source of financing for all French political parties. In the 1980s, when Bourgi arrived on the scene, it was the norm.

Bourgi says that he did not bring in the money bags.

“The process was simple. When the elections were approaching, Chirac made it clear that I had to present a message to different houses in Africa,” he said in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper this week.

“I [African] The leaders of the country then sent a messenger to my office in Paris with a large sum of money. Several million in francs or dollars.”

In each of the 1995 and 2002 presidential elections – both won by Chirac – he says around $10m (£7.5m) was given to African leaders.

The 2002 race gave Bourgi another colorful story, when a representative of Burkinabe leader Blaise Compaoré arrived in Paris with a sum of money hidden in djembe drums.

According to Bourgi, he accompanied the delegation to the Elysée Palace, where they were greeted by Chirac. They opened the sealed drums using scissors, and a rain of paper money fell.

“A typical Blaise,” Bourgi quoted Chirac as saying. “He has sent us small sects.” The money was apparently five and ten.

Managing cash wasn’t always easy. Remembering Chirac’s big donation from another African leader, Bourgi says: “The money came from Puma sports facilities. I wanted to put wads on the paper so I went into my daughter’s room and took down one of her posters, and wrapped money around it.”

The system was so widespread that it sparked action cadeauter – from the French gift, which means a gift.

When Bourgi’s allegations first surfaced in 2011 they were denied by officials in Burkina Faso and elsewhere, although a former presidential adviser in Ivory Coast admitted they were “historical”.

Jacques Chirac and his then boss Dominique de Villepin also denied Bourgi’s claims.

An initial investigation was opened but was later dropped without further action, because the payments were considered too long ago.

For African leaders at the time, said Bourgi, it was normal, and they did it among themselves. Giving large sums of money was a way to establish trust and support.

But in a changing world it was out of control and Bourgi says he was disappointed. Nicolas Sarkozy came to power in 2007 vowing not to take a single franc from Africa, and Bourgi says he kept his word.

Sarkozy is being investigated for allegedly taking campaign funds from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi – which he denies. Bourgi, loyal to Sarkozy, says he does not believe the charges.

The former lawyer, now 79 years old, also reflects on his very different role in another election – that of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. It was then that Bourgi helped end the chances of the short-term favourite, François Fillon. .

When he was close to Fillon, Bourgi was different: he accused the former prime minister of being rude and cruel. So he let the reporter know that he had gifted Fillon two very expensive suits.

Campaigning on a message of affirmation, Fillon never recovered. He was later convicted of giving his British wife a fake job.

But Africa is Bourgi’s love.

He shows that although the corruption at the heart of Françafrique was wrong, the system at the time brought stability, and a bond – often personal – between French and African leaders.

Today, that is gone.

France has a very bad image of its former colonies, and its influence is waning. Witness the recent retreat from its military bases in Mali and Niger.

“I see with sadness the disintegration of France’s relations with the continent,” said Bourgi.

“But it is very easy to put all the blame on Françafrique… Africa is a world trade. France could not adapt to this new reality. And it keeps making the same mistake: arrogance. “