Every year we run our DSFC Writing Competition, this year the theme was Power.  We want to pick a theme that will allow students across the centre to participate, the piece could be a story, poem or an academic piece in the field of a student’s choice. The purpose of the competition is to provide a chance for students to be creative and produce something of their choosing as well as to promote literacy. This year we had over 30 entries and the quality was extremely high, making the jobs of our staff judges very difficult.

The winner was Year 12 student Emma Price, and the runner up was Year 12 student Lily Darby, both receiving cash prizes, kindly donated by Potts Print (UK), for their winning entries.

Below is an extract from the winning piece: To what extent does France still retain power in Africa?

‘Discourse and criticisms surrounding Françafrique began in the 1990s, with the current French president striving to reshape France’s relationship with Africa, yet the success of this is yet to be made clear. Emmanuel Macron has sought to create a “new era” for France-Africa relations, which should see France reducing its military presence in Africa and reducing France’s supervision of African economies. There are plans to change the name of the CFA franc to the ‘eco’, the requirement for French representatives to sit on the board of the Central Bank of West African States has been removed and the requirement for the Central Bank of West African States to send 50% of their foreign exchange reserves to the France was also abolished in 2020. This marks a symbolic shift away from colonialism as the CFA franc is a symbol of French colonialism in Africa. However, critics of this shift argue that it is merely a tokenistic effort to distance France from its colonial past, without addressing the issue of the CFA franc- that it is linked to the euro- as this will not change with the ‘eco’.  Macron’s approach to African foreign policy is also often regarded as overly transactional, focusing on the advancement of shared interests and macroeconomic diplomacy. Recently, opposition in Africa against French involvement in their countries has increased, for example in Senegal where many French businesses were destroyed. This trend is expected to expand in regions such as the Ivory Coast and Central Africa. So, it is possible that Africa will see further power returned to them by France if this trend continues.

Ultimately, it is evident that power over former French colonial Africa remains in the hands of France well after formal decolonisation. Whilst the future power balance between France and Africa is uncertain, recent years have undoubtedly seen major symbolic shifts of power away from France, notably due to Macron’s new approach to African policy. However, postcolonial Africa cannot reach genuine sovereignty until their currency is de-linked from the euro, as this continues to foster weak economies, high inflation and foreign debt that can only be resolved by gaining true monetary sovereignty.’

Here is an extract from our runner up:

London cages me. Locks my ankles in a weighted chain and bolts me to the ground. Thrashes the sounds of sirens and smells of sewage into my head at every chance it gets. It wraps its filthy hands around my neck and chokes the final essence of the air I breathed in Wales out of me then shoves its politics and adverts down my throat until I am choking on a gross potion of corruption and Coca-Cola ads. Finally, it fires lasers of useless media into my eyes and blinds me from the beauty of the little things. Coaxing me and other people into their ‘bigger picture’ idealism like we are a flock of sheep they need to sway the vote. 

I think back to the way my dad looked when he told me to appreciate the little things. When I said to him that day, at ten years old, that I wished I had grown up in a city where there were things to do and places to see everywhere. When I held up an old postcard I found from when he lived in London and nagged consistently as to why he chose such a desolate and hard life over the capital city. It is now that his furrowed brow and upturned lips finally make sense to me. ‘Appreciate the little things’ is not the queer, insubstantial lie that I had brushed it off to be all them years ago. It is lifelong advice that I now understand makes up the philosophy of a life well lived. Advice I know now to be stronger than any hurricane to strike the earth, a force more brutal than a corrupt world leader and far more powerful than I had imagined so long ago.