Mamadou Diarra proposed national currencies replacing the CFA franc in 1972

Evidence

Around the same time as Samir Amin made his proposal, a former director of the Senegalese national exchange office, Mamadou Diarra, put forward a similar proposal. Starting from the premise that the CFA franc ‘doesn’t constitute a real currency, but only a sub-multiple of the French franc to which it is linked’, Diarra took a stand against those who insisted ‘more on the servitude of an independent monetary policy than on the greater opportunities it offers for effective governance’. In his work, published in 1972, he proposed the adoption of national currencies issued by national central banks according to parities in line with economic fundamentals. Such national currencies would have a fixed but adjustable parity to a common convertible unit of account registered with the IMF. Advance accounts would be negotiated in place of the operations account. Each national currency could be used in its own country of issue. Exchange controls would be established between the monetary union and the rest of the world. But within its borders ‘the exchange of currencies would be free and without limits on the basis of the parities of each national currency vis-à-vis the common currency which, serving only as a unit of account, could be used only for the settlement of transactions’. At the union level, a ‘West African reserve fund’ or a ‘West African payments union’ would be created. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 352

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Former African colonies adopted national currencies upon independence. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 83; Diarra envisioned a West African reserve fund managing the joint account — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 352

Related

• Diarra envisioned a West African reserve fund managing the joint account (similarity 0.90)
• Former African colonies adopted national currencies upon independence. (similarity 0.83)
• France alone preserved its monetary empire after its African colonies gained independence (similarity 0.80)
• France introduced the CFA franc to several African colonies in 1945 (similarity 0.80)
• The proposed eco currency is the CFA franc under another name. (similarity 0.78)
• Colonial-era monetary system survived into independence as four interlocked principles (similarity 0.78)
• The CFA franc originated in 1945 as a Françafrique control tool. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Diarra envisioned a West African reserve fund managing the joint account #expands (0.55) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 352
• Former African colonies adopted national currencies upon independence. #qualifies (0.40) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 83