The Francs CFA Empire on the verge of collapse?

 

The Francs CFA, currency used in the Franc Zone, a conglomeration of 14 West and Central African countries is increasingly coming under attack within the African countries that use it and from the Diaspora. The anti- FCFA sentiments that have been brewing for decades are now spilling over. The intensity of this anti-FCFA feeling is concretely presented in “The Revival of the Anti-FCFA movement by the Francophone African Diaspora through a cultural remittance: the pan-African identity embedded in the social movement By Natacha Aka.”

Though it was presented as a Master thesis in Conflict Resolution and Governance at the University of Amsterdam, it presents an exact picture of the bad popularity that the currency holds among the Africans who use it. According to a segment from this publication “the twentieth century saw the emergence of a social movement against the CFA franc (FCFA) currency. This currency is still used by fourteen West and Central African countries. Most of these countries happen to be former French colonies. This latter fact is noteworthy as the currency they use was created by France back in 1945 (under the French colonial empire) as a way to back up its own economy post-bellum. Fast forward to 2017, a year wherein an African NGO, Urgences
panafricanistes (URPANAF), which is arguably reviving the anti-FCFA movement, calls on the (Francophone) African civil society in the continent, as well as the (Francophone) African diaspora, to demonstrate against the CFA franc. The leader of the anti-FCFA movement and President of the NGO is part of the Francophone African diaspora. He is French by jus soli and grew up there. Notwithstanding his French nationality, he also has the Beninese nationality by jus sanguinis. His experiences with his dual identity, his membership to the Francophone African diaspora, racism, and other aspects and events made him the man he is today: a Pan-African Political Activist for the African cause. He founded the NGO Urgences panafricanistes that initiated and oversaw the anti-FCFA round of demonstrations in 2017.”

Related international issues have further hastened the plummeting trend of the FCFA. Against a backdrop of increased migration of Africans to the EU, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister, Luigi Maio, has accused France of exploiting Africa and fueling migration to the EU. “The EU should impose sanctions on France and all countries like France that impoverish Africa and make these people leave, because Africans should be in Africa, not at the bottom of the Mediterranean.”  France has “never stopped colonizing tens of African states,” he said adding that if not for resources from Africa, France would not be among the top six economies in the world.

 He further insisted that “France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts.”

To understand this hatred for the FCFA, a retrospective look can further shed some light. According to an interview accorded by Professor Mamadou Koulibaly, Speaker of the Ivorian National Assembly, Professor of Economics, and author of the book The Servitude of the Colonial Pact, Just before France conceded to African demands for independence in the 1960s, it carefully organised its former colonies (CFA countries) in a system of “compulsory solidarity” which consisted of obliging the 14 African states to put 65% of their foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury, plus another 20% for financial liabilities. This means these 14 African countries only ever have access to 15% of their own money! If they need more they have to borrow their own money from the French at commercial rates! And this has been the case since the 1960s.
France has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources found in these countries. So even if the concerned African countries can get better prices elsewhere, they can’t sell to anybody until France says it doesn’t need the resources.
In the award of government contracts, French companies must be considered first; only after that can these countries look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the CFA countries can obtain better value for money elsewhere.
Thus, these African states are French taxpayers – taxed at a staggering rate – yet the citizens of these countries aren’t French and don’t have access to the public goods and services their money helps pay for. CFA zones are solicited to provide private funding to French politicians during elections in France.
Overall the Colonial Pact gives the French a dominant and privileged 
position over Francophone Africa, but in Côte d’Ivoire, the jewel of the former French possessions in Africa, the French are overly dominant. Outside parliament, almost all the major utilities – water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and major banks – are run by French companies or French interests. The same story is found in commerce, construction, and agriculture.



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