First of all, I am neither British nor from a Commonwealth Nation. In fact, I was born in France and should Britain exit the EU, my countries of origin in Africa: Burkina-Faso and the Ivory coast are unlikely to benefit directly or immediately.

Some argue my Euroscepticism is misguided, since I benefited from free movement of people within the EU, in order to move to Britain. I am also a Pan-Africanist, and believe that in the next century, the African continent will inevitably merge into the political Union which I think is pernicious for Britain, and also for the rest of Europe.

I wasn’t always a Eurosceptic. I was educated within the French curriculum, which is extremely enthusiastic about the EU, or still was in the 90s when I was in High school, and the early 2000s when I was living in France. I remember withdrawing my first Euro notes. I felt European, as I was not yet aware of what the European Union really embodied. I saw it as this beacon of European peace, an economic bloc which had guaranteed the European economic miracle of the after war, the way to go.

Yet, if today, I am a Eurosceptic, it is for Britain, the land which welcomed and transformed me in the past 10 years. It is also for my continent of origin Africa, whose relationship with Britain, once free from the EU, I see as being rekindled, and whose treatment by the EU I find appalling.

I am also a Eurosceptic for France, strange as it may read. France’s elites have an almost unconditional commitment to the EU across the political spectrum, and despite a recent poll published in Le Monde suggesting the French would also welcome a Frexit, I still believe that France is overwhelmingly committed to the European project.

It therefore needs dissidents from its own mould to campaign for Brexit.  The youth of France needs to be inspired to challenge the status quo within the EU, even if France stays a member going forward.

I see Britain as one of the greatest Nations on Earth, having a little bias towards the Ivory Coast and Burkina-Faso. I believe this nation’s ability to embrace different cultures and to make them feel welcome to the point of creating a sense of citizenry and loyalty is unparalleled in an increasing culturally challenged Western world. Once free of a political project to which she does not subscribe, she will rediscover her global trading soul. She will proceed to formally sign mutually beneficial trade deals with her Commonwealth bloc as well as the EU, and I believe that Britain will aim larger.

She once had the largest empire in the world, she will once again go into the world, but with an agenda aimed at cooperating and trading with the seldom heard nations, whose voices are quashed by the kind of super structures which dominate the EU. This situation threatens social cohesion equally in Britain, Uganda or France in an interconnected World.

By trading her way with the World which is growing, she will look after future generations and make sure they are not burdened with unnecessary debts, the kind currently amassed especially in the beleaguered economies of the eurozone. It will be a truly powerful leap of faith, the kinds which this nation throughout her history has shown herself to be capable of.

This is how Britain stayed ahead of the curve, especially when it came to facing the less glorious parts of her history such as slavery and colonialism. Any wonder that the three nations predicted to lead the Word in the 21^st century are all former British colonies? That the fastest growing conomies in Africa or its best governed nations, are former British colonies?

This is the critical look which the Pan-Africanist in me takes at British history and its legacy in my land of origin. It does not absolve Britain of the darker moments of its history.  I believe there comes a point when this nation will have to acknowledge publicly its responsibility as part of a global system, which stripped away Afro descendants of the soul which in the 21^st century they are trying to piece together.

Yet, the legacy of Britain in Africa is also a culture in the African Anglosphere, which many of us in the Francophone block envy. We wish we had greater entrepreneurial instincts, less red tape, a culture less based on state dependency, and the strong institutions and civil societies which the African Anglosphere exhibits. This is the positive legacy of the passage of Britain in Africa, as a coloniser. Brexit is about the future, and over half of the Commonwealth Nations are either in Africa or the Caribbean. Those nations are bound by a common struggle: self-determination. The EU, through her protectionist practices such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy and her so called “free” trade deals imposed on Nations with little bargaining power, stands in the way of this self-determination.

I have read a number of reports on the policies pursued by the EU in Africa and their economic impact, and far from me the idea of rubbishing completely the relationship between the EU and Africa, as having been a complete disaster.

It was an article about the impact of the Common Fisheries Policy which made me click, and like it always is with politics, it became personal. I was reading about the plight of communities in Senegal depending on fishing for their livelihoods, and who faced with the unfair competition from the big European vessels had to stop trading. I will not go into the details of the environmental damage caused by this over fishing, but I now had a big clue to a question whose answer I had looked for in recent months.

Why do so many Senegalese young men need to migrate? Senegal is a country I love. In the past couple of years, I have paid the school fees of a young Senegalese boy met during a trip 6 years ago. I hoped to help him be able to support his family thanks to his education. A Senegalese young man whom I introduced to the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program put together a business plan which made him abandon his project to come to Europe as an economic migrant. I have got friends and family in Senegal, who have to support their less fortunate family members, and whilst I am sure that what pushes young Senegalese men to leave their country in search of a better life in Europe cannot be only blamed on the Common Fisheries Policy, its contribution to the devastation of entire coastal communities is morally reprehensible.

The resulting pull towards migration, the brain drain away from Africa is a tragedy for this continent whose wealth will help other regions of the world in the future. That is my plea as an African to British citizens of African and Caribbean descent to consider what the EU has done to their lands of origin.

Now, I am sitting at a brasserie watching the French news reporting, day in day out. What do I see? One company closing down after another, potential redundancies, cosmetic reforms of the Welfare state pompously announced by the Socialist administration, which has been unable to deliver the program it was elected on.

I see the crisis with France’s feisty farmers, I read about employees of a council locking down their Mayor and threatening him. I see Smart, the car company asking some of its employees to accept to work for 40 hours paid 35 for the next 5 years in order to not lose their jobs. I look at the deepening migration crisis and its ramifications for social cohesion in France, this country and its Republic and her contradictions, when it comes to embracing diversity.

I think about the African diaspora, the biggest one outside Africa living in France, usually in low paid employment, or small business owners, struggling to break even, even though on balance in 2016, there are improvements to the fortunes of French citizens of African descent compared to when I left in 2005.

I think about the country in which I was born, in which I used to spend my summer holidays, in which I first got married and divorced, in which I still have my best friends and members of my family.

I look for its Eurosceptics, and I cannot ever see them working together. I therefore believe that once Britain is free from the EU, she will inspire the youth of France to be more audacious, and more challenging of the European project. All those reasons are why, in a nutshell, I am a Eurosceptic even if I have no vote on the 23^rd of June and might not live permanently in Britain afterwards. This is why I founded Africans for Britain.

Youma is a bilingual Pan-Africanist & Anglophile, she believes no one else but Africans will power up her renaissance. Free trade fanatic. Follow her on Twitter: @youmajamilaNANA

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A French, Panafricanist lady, who temporarily left the party in her usual bombastic manner in the summer, declaring her flame to the British Conservative party once again! Brace yourselves…

I moved to Britain ten years ago from France in which I had lived for six years, initially as a University student fresh from the Ivory Coast, in West Africa. At the time, I did not really know how long I would stay in Britain. I had briefly considered moving to Germany whose language I was more fluent in, and where I had lived briefly as an intern in Frankfurt in 2001.

Someone had murmured to me that there were good wages to be made in Britain as a healthcare assistant. I had been an excellent achiever at school, and later on in Higher Education, but the humiliating glare of the French welfare state and its inconsistencies had somehow stripped me of my self-confidence. I decided that if becoming a healthcare assistant in Britain would liberate me from the tyranny of the Egalitarian French regime, I would take a chance.

To cut a long story short, I did not become a healthcare assistant immediately: I was a catering assistant, a sales advisor and a bookseller initially in London. And then, three years into my adventure in Britain, I took a chance and embarked on the most rewarding but also draining career I would find myself to be undertaking, as a Health Care Assistant. Seven years later, I am now finally embracing my dream of journalism and thinking myself as a social entrepreneur.

All this while, having always had an interest in politics and history, I had gradually become an honorary citizen of this country. I started understanding its fabric, its differences and similarities to France, its profoundly Conservative nature, its rich history counted through hours of reading books both fiction and non fiction, watching cookery shows, period dramas, history documentaries, news programs such as Newsnight, the Andrew Marr Show and the brilliant series by Simon Schama: A history of Britain.

I had been supportive of the French equivalent of the Conservative party and had voted proudly for Nicolas Sarkozy, hoping he would be the architect of the French Republic’s reinvention and adaptation to the 21^st century. One or two bling bling scandals later and my dreams laid in tatters. In hindsight, I concluded that his mission had been an almost impossible task as France is in my opinion, a profoundly Socialist country, which will resist any attempt at rolling back its overpowering State machine.

Would the British Conservatives offer me the alternative I had sought? Would they offer me a narrative which would validate my own system belief? I would need to write another piece to explain how I had come to see welfare dependency as a form of enslavement, which a freedom lover like me could never subjugate herself to. I believed that for those with relatively good health, having a career was always better as it offered in return the dignity, the sense of self-worth, and the idea that one was a member of society with rights and responsibilities.

Funnily enough, this value of work, and its role as an agent of social cohesion had been illustrated by a French philosopher: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I had moved to Britain the year that David Cameron had been elected Conservative leader and I was liking what I was hearing. I understood how a Tony Blair led Labour had been seen as a breath of fresh air to the very perspicacious British public in the 1990s.  They had characteristically given a break to the Tories for them to renew their ideological offering.

Here was a leader who was pledging the concept of the “Big Society”, otherwise known as localism, which encapsulated my idea of a perfect society. In a way, it related to the kind of society I used to pride myself in having grown up in Africa. A society in which communities pulled together and found innovative solutions to their many struggles. They were not waiting on the State, In the case of my country, there was no such thing as a welfare state.

I saw it positively, though being from a middle class background, some might argue that it was easier for me to say so. I would always object to that. Although my father had become an airline pilot and had therefore earned a good income, he had not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had been one of those kids which Western media loves parading in its biased reporting of Africa, born in a hut, to utterly poor and uneducated parents. It had been through his hard work, discipline and resilience that he had successfully crossed all the bridges which had enabled him to become comfortable. Therefore, I believed this to be the best possible way for unlocking people’s potential.

A hand up, not a hand out, was what the Conservative party was pledging through the work the Centre for Social Justice, and this was exactly what my own story in Britain was turning out to be. I had lived here for eight years, and was earning on a monthly basis, 20 times the amount I had landed here with. Every step of the way, my hard work, determination to succeed and adaptability had been rewarded.

I had used the same recipe in France to much less success, and this is not a French bashing article as I believe that my own agency had also played a part in those failures. I had matured in Britain, and therefore, I was better able to seize the opportunities available here. I continue to say that as an under 25, non-white woman who has not finished her higher education is better off in Britain than in France in the 21^st century. This might explain the exodus towards London of the French youth who are also embracing Britain in their droves.

The Conservatives came to power, as part of the coalition with the Lib Dems, and much as I would rather have seen the localism agenda take off a lot more and the State being pushed back, I applaud the performance of this first administration. I trust the second one with pushing forward with the long term economic recovery plans, and to handle the upcoming referendum in a unifying manner. I have no say in the matter, as a foreigner, but I will be campaigning for Brexit, having acquired the certitude that this is the only option for a forward looking Britain, which will hopefully create a chain reaction on the continent.

Here I am, being part of Britain once again reinventing freedom and leading the way in this manner which has ensured that this country has tended to be on the right side of history more often than not.

I am also a traditionalist, and was always a big fan of the British monarchy. Queen Elizabeth I is the ultimate role model of female leadership; her life journey and political career is an inspiration.  It is this love of tradition, first and foremost African traditions and culture for which I am an arch ambassador and defender of, which also makes me a natural Conservative. I believe in conserving old ways, passing them on from one generation to another, being proud of one’s cultural heritage and uncompromising in the defence of one’s country and civilisation.

I have a lot of admiration for the manner in which Britain averted the bloodbath of the French revolution, whilst evolving towards a political model which in my opinion truly symbolises the values of Liberte-Fraternite-Egalite. This is happening without a written constitution, with a Monarch as Head of State, and a Parliamentary system which I hope will inspire many countries in Africa, in the move away from the stuffy Presidentialism and its many undemocratic ways.

I would like to see the Conservative party truly advocate free market principles and a much more reduced involvement of the State in the delivery of social policy. I would like this Conservative government to be the one which leads the world into changing its ways towards my land of origin: Africa.  I would like for the Conservative party to see Africa as a hub of opportunities and wealth creation in a mutually beneficial way, away from the old paternalistic ways inherited from the colonial era. I also wish to see this Conservative party to be the one which changes Britain’s overall stance in terms of foreign policy.

I believe that when a country is ranked as the world’s top soft power, and when at one point in history, it had the largest empire in the World, it has a duty to use both this history and this position, to advance the cause of a truly multipolar world in which free trade, not aid or militaristic adventures, guarantee prosperity.

Those are the battles I will be waging as part of the broad church and the big family which is the British Conservative party. I have qualified for the past five years for a British citizenship and I deliberately decided not to apply for one, as I am very critical of the concept of multiculturalism. I believe that should I become a British citizen, I would have to give my entire loyalty to Britain and to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, even if she was in conflict with Africa. I refuse to promise the impossible to Britain, as much as I love this country dearly for having given me a second chance, but home is MAMA AFRICA. I hope to help dispel some of the myths around the Conservative party which I believe to be the natural Home of Africans. So long as the party is prepared to meet Africans half way.

This article is part of our ongoing ‘Why I am a Conservative’ series, in which supporters of CfL talk about their beliefs and values. If you would like to take part please email blog@con4lib.

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Conspiracy theorists on the continent are having a field day calling this the sabotage of Africa’s success story; a deliberate attempt by the Western world to stop Africa from finally becoming its own master. Are they onto something? If we focus on the Department for International Development (DfID) in the UK, what can we say?

It claims to have reduced poverty considerably and to be wanting to engage in a new paradigm called “Beyond Aid”. Only time will tell if this new agenda is really a departure from the old ways. Or if it will actually be business as usual: top down projects which rarely impact communities meaningfully and create a culture of dependency which we should be concerned about, especially for those of us who see in free enterprise as the only way to prosperity. Meanwhile, African leaders such as Tony Elumelu, Aliko Dangote, Akon and many others in the field of political thinking, business, arts, etc are inspiring their counterparts to dare to seize the opportunities which have always been available on the continent.

“This July, the world’s foremost thought leaders, business development experts and emerging and established entrepreneurs and innovators will meet for the sixth annual global entrepreneurship summit…and it is only fitting that this year’s summit is hosted by a country that epitomises the transformational power of possibility, where the vibrancy of the economy is only matched by the verve of the youth”.

This is an extract from a speech delivered in a moving video by the current President of Kenya, Kenyatta. It echoes the views that he shared around foreign aid before the latest African Union summit, which are also amplified by the political and business intelligentsia across the continent. They want to put an end to a system which has kept Africa in a permanent state of misery. They have embarked on a rebranding of the continent, and this is largely supported by African citizens. They are gradually unshackling themselves and realising what sitting in the driving seat for the transformation of Africa could mean for them.

It does not help that the media continuously bombards us with images of chaos, desperation, disease, war and corruption in Africa. This is not the whole story: African economies are growing faster than those of the developed world. The returns on investments are higher than in any other region of the world. The African market with its growing middle class is a formidable opportunity to foster mutually beneficial trade deals, not just for big corporations, but also for small and medium sized companies in Britain and in Africa. Africans are not all desperate for a life in the Western world, as large numbers of them who came to the West to study or work, or to flee war zones; are returning to build their homelands.

If development agencies like DfID want to claim the credit for some of the massive and wonderful changes in Africa, they need to completely change how they approach it. Not just in rhetoric, but also in action. These are the avenues that they might want to consider:

1) A new Department for International Cooperation & Trade

It is paradoxical that the fastest growing region in the world is still envisaged as weak, vulnerable, and incapable of self-determination. This could be the only rational explanation for the persistence in labelling programs ‘developmental’, when they should actually be aimed at facilitating cooperation and trade in a win-win process.

Perhaps DfID, which persistently claims to be world leading and ground breaking, could lead the way in removing the D in its acronym and replacing it with a C and T; thus becoming the Department for International Cooperation & Trade. This would be more in line with its real aim, or what should be its real aim, to foster a good climate for British business abroad. It would also appease British taxpayers who are questioning the ring fencing of the DFID’s budget at a time of reduced spending across the board. By understanding that the investment in DFID is aimed at fostering trade and cooperation with tomorrow’s big economic powerhouses, the general public might show less reluctance. The newly DfICT would therefore be refocusing on technology transfers and facilitation of entrepreneurship, and entrench Britain’s reputation as a soft power. This would lead the way in the world’s narrative around Africa and might encourage many Africans in looking at their continent as a land of wealth creation, instead of a land of poverty reduction.

This would be more in line with the aspirations of African people living on the continent and in the diaspora. They are gradually standing against the negative and dependent portrayal of their continent as can be seen with the #someonetellcnn or #theafricatheynevershow hashtags on twitter. They are increasingly looking favourably at partners such as China, which adopts a less condescending approach and is seen to be working at partnership building. This is not to say that the Chinese involvement in Africa is not without problems, but its approach has proven more empowering for Africans who see China as a benign power which does not interfere in their domestic affairs, and which only has an economic agenda – not a civilizational one.

2) An EU that leads on free trade

Across Europe, there is a growing discontent with the workings of the EU, and nowhere more so than in Britain, where the case for Brexit is being articulated in a very convincing manner. The central tenet of this argument is that Britain needs to reclaim its economic and political sovereignty, lost in the red tape and protectionist practices of the EU.

Those practices such as the Common Agricultural Policy have harmed Africa far more than any war or disease that the continent has experienced. The EU has erected barriers which have stopped African farmers from competing on the European market, imposing on them the farming of crops such as cocoa, coffee and cotton which are less profitable and mainly serve the Western market – which transforms them and exports them back in Africa. These barriers to trade and industrial progress have helped to keep Africans poor, and they were being implemented by so called aid programs.

Fortunately, this economic model is now being challenged and a manufacturing industry is emerging, trading across and beyond the continent to overcome the challenges posed by food insecurity, climate change and migration movements, and fuelling the growth of an African middle class.

If the EU is serious about tackling poverty in Africa, it should get rid of the Common Agricultural Policy and follow free market principles in all its dealings with the continent. Britain and the new DfICT could be at the forefront of this rebalancing of the trading partnerships between Africa and the EU.

3) Tackling tax evasion

At a recent event in London hosted by the BBC called “Has Africa outgrown foreign aid?”, Ben Philips, the Head of Research and Policy at Action Aid, exposed the behaviour of Western corporations across the continent which have been evading their tax responsibilities – relying on tax havens and depriving African countries of the money that they need to implement their own developmental goals.

Mr Philips was relaying what is now being gradually reported in the mainstream press: for all their generosity and pledges to ‘make poverty history’ by committing to aid budgets, Western governments have been silent on these tax avoidance practices which seriously harm the poor and undermine a country’s sovereignty.

It is easy to blame this situation on corrupt leaders, but in this debate we often forget about the corruptors or the facilitators. DfID’s budget might be better spent focusing on the British corporations which are contributing to the life of poverty and hopelessness many African citizens continue to suffer. They inflict a double pain by occupying markets Africans might have wanted to invest in, and by escaping their tax duties. This is not to advocate higher taxes in Africa, as this would be another barrier to the proliferation of entrepreneurship across the continent.

I am merely arguing that corporations which are making impressive returns on their investments in Africa should be conducting themselves responsibly. David Cameron’s speech on his recent trip in South East Asia seems to suggest that London at least is soon to become less attractive to those corporate practices. This is very encouraging and should be met with praise, as ultimately, it is more conducive of a better environment for business practice all over the world.

Trading with Africa as equals

In the midst of all this, there is incredible hope for Africans and the rest of the world. They are gradually challenging the status quo. They are reinventing themselves in a way that validates the theories of true liberalism and its ability to create meaningful social progress.

This is an opportunity for the West to move away from what the brilliant Giles Bolton, former DfID director, calls “the colonial hangover” and finally engage meaningfully with Africa to guarantee a more prosperous world. DfID needs to believe that just as Britain owes its success to its many entrepreneurs who have continuously made this nation a great one; so will Africa. The government’s stance for state reduction and society’s empowerment at home needs to drive DfID’s mission everywhere. It should act as a crowdfunder; a venture capitalist in the business plan that every African country will design for itself.

Global poverty has already fallen, and will continue to fall dramatically. For Britain to continue to be seen as an agent of this change; it desperately needs to exercise the liberal principles it is respected for the world over by TRADING with Africa as EQUALS.