The Lingering Influence of the French Empire in Africa
The Communauté Financière d’Afrique franc (CFA franc) is a destructive, dangerous remnant of the French colonial empire. To this day, it remains a major method of economic control that France asserts over her former colonies. This currency system ties 14 independent economies in West and North Africa,herby referred to as member nations, to that of their old colonial overlord, stifling growth and directly affecting almost 150 million people.
The CFA franc currently refers to two separate currencies, the Central African CFA franc and the West African CFA franc, with each of them being essentially interchangeable and both having their values pegged to that of the Euro. The French government guarantees the currency, has the ability to print it, and requires member states follow strict rules that can negatively affect their economies. The most important of these rules is that 50% of all foreign currency reserves that a member state has must be held by the French treasury. This potential control over a large share of such an important asset gives the French government leverage over a member countries’ international policy and directly erodes the ability of a member nation to make sovereign decisions. Not having the ability to adjust interest rates in response to events within the union, and having the currency’s value pegged to the Euro are both highly detrimental. States choose to adjust interest rates of their currency to affect inflation, and keep their economy strong. Members of the CFA franc are restricted from doing this; they are at the mercy of European financial policy, which is implemented with little regard for the effects it will have on the member nations. The CFA franc is a remnant of colonial era monetary control and to understand why it still exists today it is important to know its history.
The CFA franc original stood for ‘franc of the French colonies of Africa’. It was created in 1945 for the then, French colonies, in Northern and Western Africa. The French government could set the exchange rate of this new currency and did so, highly overvaluing it in an effort to encourage purchases of goods from mainland France and make trade with the rest of the international community harder for the colonies. As the central French government controlled the issuing of the CFA franc, it could also effectively buy from the colonies for free by issuing more money to fund such purchases. While this system was inherently unfavourable to the African colonies, this was not a unique or new idea as other colonial empires had this strategy to control the economies of their overseas territories for decades. What sets the CFA franc apart from these other currencies is the fact that it survived the global decolonisation process of the 1950s. Through coersion, threats, and sometimes violence the French government forced their former colonies to accept harsh economic treaties and the continuation of the CFA franc, renamed to what it stands for today. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, there were many attempts by newly independent African nations to leave the CFA franc, most of which were stopped by dishonest actions of the French government. After Guinea tried to leave the CFA franc and create a national currency in 1960 the French government secretly printed large amounts of the new currency and flooded it into the country, ruining their economy. The assassinations of progressive African leaders, Sylvanus Olympio and Thomas Sankara, in 1963 and 1987 respectively are also thought to be the work of the French government in order to maintain the status quo of the CFA franc, as they had plans to move their countries to national currencies.
Today, France still has a large sway in Africa. They station troops and conduct military operations with relative impunity, and are still a significant trading partner for many of the nations that use the CFA franc. Firstly, these relationships are a result of first the subjection and conquering of these nations, and secondly of the unjust methods France used to decolonise, something which they, like many European powers, were not happy to do. The French government claims the CFA franc provides financial stability to the nations that use it but in reality, it gives them a form of control over nations which should have been given full independence. In the past few years African leaders have been calling for reform. Whilst it appears the French government has been receptive, with her track record and current events, who knows when it will actually happen. What is clear is that reform is needed to end this control that France exerts over these African nations so that the stain of colonialism can be cleaned from the world once and for all.
