The team at The Rules, an organization that militates for economic justice, recently shared on social networks an article called: “How France loots its former colonies”. Astonished by the title, I read the blog post and started to look for additional articles on the topic. What a surprise! Did you know that 14 African countries still have to give 85% of their money to the French central bank, controlled by the French ministry of finance? All of this occurs because of an unacceptable colonial pact that has been in force for over half a century.
In 1945, France created a new currency for its colonies: the CFA franc (franc of the French Colonies in Africa). In the 1950s, when France gradually left Africa, it forced each nation to sign a colonial pact, a document that states how France will keep control over the CFA franc monetary system. For over half a century now, France has maintained a financial, monetary and economic control due to the currency above mentioned. Today, 8,000 billions of CFA francs are kept in the French Treasury, the equivalent of more than 12 billions of euros.
At the three central banks of the franc zone (in Dakar, Senegal, in Yaoundé, Cameroon and in Moroni, Comoros), French directors sit on the boards. This French presence is guaranteed in the statutes of the central bank itself and gives France a veto power in decision-makings. By depriving its former colonies to freely manage their monetary policies, France runs unfair economic relationships with these African nations. More than half a century after independence, French policies remain disconnected from the real issues in Africa and what people there suffer from economic and monetary decisions that largely work for French interests only. The CFA franc is the only remaining colonial monetary system in the world, a mechanism that Jean-Paul Sartre coined as neocolonialism in 1956.
In addition to the centralization of the monetary policy, the pact also allows France to exploit raw materials from its former territories to feed its industries, and to use the former colonies as outlets for French products. Indeed, the pact continues to give priority to France over any source or natural resource discovered in francophone Africa. Searching for other partners is authorized only if France isn’t interested in buying these raw materials thus allowing it to maintain control over the transactions of all natural resources coming from there. Moreover, priority has to be given to French companies for all public investments. This means that in the case of a tender process, French corporations have to be considered first. Foreign companies may be solicited only if any French business declined the offer. The fact that African countries could get much better deals elsewhere doesn’t matter here: the contract should be assigned in priority to a French company, even if it has quoted an astronomical price (such as for the construction of the third bridge of Abidjan). Consequently, in most former French colonies, all major businesses are controlled by French expats. In Ivory Coast for example, French companies own and control all major public services: water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and banks.
Some African presidents raised their voice against the unfair pact and worked at creating alternatives. In Togo for, Sylvanus Olympio decided to exit the CFA monetary system and create a new currency for the country. In January 13, 1963, three days after the printing of the new bank notes, a squad of soldiers supported by France seized and assassinated the first elected president.
In 1962, Modiba Keita, the first president of the Republic of Mali, also hinted at leaving the CFA system. For the Malian President, it was clear that the colonization would keep existing because of the pact with France: it was a trap, a burden for the development of the nation. In November 1968, Keita was overthrown, victim of a coup led by mercenaries formerly affiliated with the French foreign legion.
Whenever a democratically elected African government has dared to fight to free itself from the yoke of colonialism, France used its former legionaries to make a lightning raid. The pact gives France the exclusive right to provide military equipments to its ex-colonies and to train African military officers. Another thing worth mentioning is that France has the right to intervene militarily in African countries and stationing troops there permanently.
Were you aware that a significant portion of the French wealth still comes from the exploitation of former colonies in Africa? How can we accept these totalitarian practices by governments that are shamefully acting in the name of “national interests”? How long will we remain passive actors that keep such injustices running? It is time for all of us to gradually move out of this globalized and centralized economy that nudges the exploitation of the weakest. Let’s accelerate the transition to alternative systems that are localized, transparent, ethical and fair for all so we can avoid participating in such debacle and definitely turn the page of colonialism.
