African deputies publicly exposed the CFA franc as a tool of the colonial pact

Evidence

The CFA franc, for Pouemi, was a ‘chimera’, ‘a creature of the French state’, just like the French franc, and it represented a purely political and uneconomic choice as a result of which the future of today’s and tomorrow’s Africans was sacrificed on the altar of the past. According to the economist, the CFA franc was an instrument of colonial economic development: it was not designed to stimulate the growth of African productive forces. It was rather a system that deprived access to credit all those African economic actors who did not adapt to the model of colonial accumulation based, on the one hand, on the production of raw materials for export and, on the other, on the consumption of goods imported from the metropole. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 192 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Ultimately, we are in the presence of a mechanism that defies belief: France uses its presumed role of ‘guarantor’ as a pretext and as a tool to blackmail its former colonies in order to keep them in its orbit, both economically and politically, as we will see in Chapters 4 and 5. Worse, the African states not only guarantee the convertibility of the CFA franc with their own reserves, but continue, in fact, to ‘guarantee’ France’s leading position in the global economy, by accruing important benefits to its economy. All the foundations of the CFA system are based on a mug’s game. Therefore, it is not surprising that African leaders, following their countries’ independence, immediately mobilised against the CFA franc. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 146 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The CFA franc’s real purpose was draining colonial wealth to France.; The CFA franc functions as a political instrument of pressure over 15 African states.; The CFA franc is the central weapon of Françafrique’s neocolonial domination (+8 more)

Related

• The CFA franc was a colonial instrument depriving African actors of credit. (similarity 0.93)
• The CFA franc’s real purpose was draining colonial wealth to France. (similarity 0.91)
• The CFA guarantee arrangement secretly benefits France at Africa’s expense (similarity 0.91)
• The CFA franc was a political choice that deprived non-adapting African actors of credit (similarity 0.91)
• CFA convertibility guarantee is cheap only because African economies stay small. (similarity 0.90)
• The CFA franc is the central weapon of Françafrique’s neocolonial domination (similarity 0.90)
• African deputies denounced the CFA franc’s lack of independence in 1949. (similarity 0.90)
• The CFA franc functions as a political instrument of pressure over 15 African states. (similarity 0.89)
• CFA franc’s real aims were draining colonial wealth into France, not African progress. (similarity 0.89)
• The CFA franc’s parity was set without regard for local economic realities (similarity 0.88)
• The CFA franc persists because French and African elites both profit from it (similarity 0.88)
• CFA francs are non-convertible among the three African franc-zone sub-units (similarity 0.88)
• The CFA franc gives France instruments to control the politics of 15 African states. (similarity 0.88)
• France introduced the CFA franc to several African colonies in 1945 (similarity 0.88)
• France’s guarantee is backed by pooled African reserves and French central bank seats (similarity 0.88)

Broader Connections

• The CFA franc was a colonial instrument depriving African actors of credit. #corroborates (0.80)
• The CFA franc was a political choice that deprived non-adapting African actors of credit #corroborates (0.80) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 192
• The CFA guarantee arrangement secretly benefits France at Africa’s expense #corroborates (0.75) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 146
• An overvalued CFA franc penalised African exports while favouring imports from France #expands (0.70) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 128
• The CFA franc’s fixed peg forced colonies to absorb French devaluations helplessly #expands (0.70)
• Sankara framed the convertible CFA franc as a weapon of African domination. #exemplifies (0.65)
• The colonial pact forbade African industrialisation and monopolised colonial trade #expands (0.60) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 62