When the foreign ministers of France and Kenya open the "Africa Forward Summit: Africa-France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth" at the University of Nairobi on May 11, the focus will be on trying to find common ground. The two-day meeting in Kenya is the first summit of its kind that France is hosting in an English-speaking African country that is not among its traditional partners. There is a reason for this: According to analysts, President Emmanuel Macron wants to send a signal and initiate a shift away from France's previous Africa policy in West Africa.  President Emmanuel Macron is seeking new partners in anglophone Africa Image: Thibault Camus/AP Photo/picture alliance Why France is making a geopolitical shift "France has lost a great deal of prestige and influence in Francophone African countries, especially in the Sahel region," Ulf Laessing, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Sahel regional program in Mali, told DW.…