There has been this saying that Africa had regain her freedom, but it is so? has the french left us? are we still under the control of the french government? This post will give you some hints about the state of Africa. This is about the Continuous colonial Rule in Francophone African countries.
According to the BBC, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said: “France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states. It prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts.” His remarks reveal the darkest side of France, a side that unfortunately exists even today.
The French colonizers believed that they were superior and tried to forcefully assimilate others into their own culture with the stated aim of “civilizing” people. However, their main focus was to gain ground in the competition for raw materials, pursue new international markets and increase their global influence – the same reasons other Western colonialist powers had. French colonialism brought cruelty, disease, starvation, underdevelopment and more to its colonized nations such as Vietnam and Algeria.
Neocolonialism
The definition of neocolonialism Kwame Nkrumah offers in his 1965 book, “Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism,” is enlightening. He used the term in the context of African colonialism, but it still applies when examining current international affairs.
The full definition can be found in the introduction of the book. But for now, I just would like to quote parts related to my own explanation.
“The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality, its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside,” Nkrumah writes. “The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Neo-colonialism is based upon the principle of breaking up former large united colonial territories into several small non-viable States which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon the former imperial power for defense and even internal security,” he said.
History of the CFA Franc
The CFA franc was born in 1945, following the end of the Second World War. Previously, French colonies had their currencies pegged to the French franc. However, changes made by the signing of the Bretton Woods Agreement, ratified in 1945, pegged the French franc to the U.S. dollar, which devalued the French franc. France created the new currency to avoid devaluing the money in its colonies.
The initial exchange rate in 1945 was one CFA franc to 1.70 French francs In 1948, the rate changed from one CFA franc to two French francs after the devaluation of the French franc. This artificially high exchange rate for the CFA franc caused economic stagnation among the countries in the CFA franc zone in the 1980s and early 1990s. In consultation with France and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the African monetary unions decided to devalue their currencies by 50%, which, along with other fiscal and monetary policy adjustments, generated GDP growth of 5% in the CFA franc zone between 1995 and 2000
African Countries that are still using Francs
| Countries |
| Benin |
| Burkina Faso |
| Burundi |
| Cameroon |
| Central African Republic |
| Chad |
| Republic of the Congo |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Comoros |
| Côte d’Ivoire |
| Djibouti |
| Equatorial Guinea |
| Gabon |
| Guinea |
| Guinea-Bissau |
| Liechtenstein |
| Mali |
| Niger |
| Rwanda |
| Senegal |
| Switzerland |
| Togo |
Below are the 11 main components of the Colonisation continuation pact since 1950s:
#1. Colonial Debt for the benefits of France colonization
The newly “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure built by France in the country during colonization.
I still have to find out the complete details about the amounts, the evaluation of the colonial benefits and the terms of payment imposed on the african countries, but we are working on that (help us with info).
#2. Automatic confiscation of national reserves
The African countries should deposit their national monetary reserves into France Central bank.
France has been holding the national reserves of fourteen african countries since 1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
“The monetary policy governing such a diverse aggregation of countries is uncomplicated because it is, in fact, operated by the French Treasury, without reference to the central fiscal authorities of any of the WAEMU or the CEMAC. Under the terms of the agreement which set up these banks and the CFA the Central Bank of each African country is obliged to keep at least 65% of its foreign exchange reserves in an “operations account” held at the French Treasury, as well as another 20% to cover financial liabilities.
The CFA central banks also impose a cap on credit extended to each member country equivalent to 20% of that country’s public revenue in the preceding year. Even though the BEAC and the BCEAO have an overdraft facility with the French Treasury, the drawdowns on those overdraft facilities are subject to the consent of the French Treasury. The final say is that of the French Treasury which has invested the foreign reserves of the African countries in its own name on the Paris Bourse.
In short, more than 80% of the foreign reserves of these African countries are deposited in the “operations accounts” controlled by the French Treasury. The two CFA banks are African in name, but have no monetary policies of their own. The countries themselves do not know, nor are they told, how much of the pool of foreign reserves held by the French Treasury belongs to them as a group or individually.
The earnings of the investment of these funds in the French Treasury pool are supposed to be added to the pool but no accounting is given to either the banks or the countries of the details of any such changes. The limited group of high officials in the French Treasury who have knowledge of the amounts in the “operations accounts”, where these funds are invested; whether there is a profit on these investments; are prohibited from disclosing any of this information to the CFA banks or the central banks of the African states .” Wrote Dr. Gary K. Busch
It’s now estimated that France is holding close to 500 billions African countries money in its treasury, and would do anything to fight anyone who want to shed a light on this dark side of the old empire.
The African countries don’t have access to that money.
France allows them to access only 15% of the money in any given year. If they need more than that, they have to borrow the extra money from their own 65% from the French Treasury at commercial rates.
To make things more tragic, France impose a cap on the amount of money the countries could borrow from the reserve. The cap is fixed at 20% of their public revenue in the preceding year. If the countries need to borrow more than 20% of their own money, France has a veto.
#3. Right of first refusal on any raw or natural resource discovered in the country
France has the first right to buy any natural resources found in the land of its ex-colonies. It’s only after France would say, “I’m not interested”, that the African countries are allowed to seek other partners.
#4. Priority to French interests and companies in public procurement and public biding
In the award of government contracts, French companies must be considered first, and only after that these countries could look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the african countries can obtain better value for money elsewhere.
As consequence, in many of the french ex-colonies, all the majors economical assets of the countries are in the hand of french expatriates. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, french companies own and control all the major utilities – water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and major banks. The same in commerce, construction, and agriculture.
In the end, as I’ve written in a previous article, Africans now Live On A Continent Owned by Europeans!
#5. Exclusive right to supply military equipment and Train the country military officers
Through a sophisticated scheme of scholarships, grants, and “Defense Agreements” attached to the Colonial Pact, the africans should send their senior military officers for training in France or French ran-training facilities.
The situation on the continent now is that France has trained hundreds, even thousands of traitors and nourish them. They are dormant when they are not needed, and activated when needed for a coup or any other purpose!
#6. Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene military in the country to defend its interests
Under something called “Defence Agreements” attached to the Colonial Pact, France had the legal right to intervene militarily in the African countries, and also to station troops permanently in bases and military facilities in those
countries, run entirely by the French.
French military bases in Africa
When President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire tried to end the French exploitation of the country, France organized a coup. During the long process to oust Gbagbo, France tanks, helicopter gunships and Special Forces intervened directly in the conflit, fired on civilians and killed many.
To add insult to injury, France estimated that the French business community had lost several millions of dollars when in the rush to leave Abidjan in 2006 the French Army massacred 65 unarmed civilians and wounded 1,200 others.
After France succeeded the coup, and transferred power to Alassane Outtara, France requested Ouattara government to pay compensation to French business community for the losses during the civil war.
Indeed the Ouattara government paid them twice what they said they had lost in leaving.
#7. Obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language for education
A French language and culture dissemination organization has been created called “Francophonie” with several satellites and affiliates organizations supervised by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.
#8. Obligation to use France colonial money FCFA
That’s the real milk cow for France, but it’s such an evil system even denounced by the European Union, but France is not ready to move from that colonial system which puts about 500 billions dollars from Africa to its treasury.
During the introduction of Euro currency in Europe, other european countries discovered the french exploitation scheme. Many, specially the nordic countries, were appalled and suggested France get rid of the system, but unsuccessfully.
#9. Obligation to send France annual balance and reserve report.
Anyway the secretary of the Central banks of the ex-colonies, and the secretary of the bi-annual meeting of the Ministers of Finance of the ex-colonies is carried out by France Central bank / Treasury.
#10. Renonciation to enter into military alliance with any other country unless authorized by France
African countries in general are the ones with will less regional military alliances. Most of the countries have only military alliances with their ex-colonisers! (funny, but you can’t do better!).
In the case France ex-colonies, France forbid them to seek other military alliance except the one it offered them.
#11. Obligation to ally with France in situation of war or global crisis
Over one million africans soldiers fought for the defeat of nazism and fascism during the second world war.
Their contribution is often ignored or minimized, but when you think that it took only 6 weeks for Germany to defeat France in 1940, France knows that Africans could be useful for fighting for la “Grandeur de la France” in the future.