Here is the copy and paste
We try to keep a positive vibe going here at This Is
Africa , but every so often you come across something
that just paints your mood black. Some of you may
already be aware of this, but if like us you're hearing
about this for the first time your jaw will drop. And it'll
probably raise the same BIG questions in your mind
that it did in ours. (Incidentally, once you read this
you'll no longer wonder why French presidents' and
ministers are sometimes greeted by protests when they
visit former French colonies in Africa, even if the
protests are about other issues. Though what other
issues could be more important than this one we have
no idea.)
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.
Professor Nicolas Agbohou, Associate Professor at the
Institute of Cheikh Anta Diop, University of Gabo n
Believe it or not it gets worse.
France has the first right to buy or reject any natural
resources found in the land of the Francophone
countries. So even if the 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 doesnt matter if the
CFA countries can obtain better value for money
elsewhere.
Presidents of CFA countries that have tried to leave the
CFA zone have had political and financial pressure put
on them by successive French presidents.
CFA Zone
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.
The above is a summary of an article we came across in
the February issue of the New African (and from an
interview given by Professor Mamadou Koulibaly,
Speaker of the Ivorian National Assembly, Professor of
Economics, and author of the book The Servitude of the
Colonial Pact), and we hope they won't mind us sharing
it with you influx, so here goes:
THE COLONIAL PACT
It is the Colonial Pact that set up the common currency
for the Francophone countries, the CFA Franc, which
demands that each of the 14 C.F.A member countries
must deposit 65% (plus another 20% for financial
liabilities, making the dizzying total of 85%) of their
foreign exchange reserves in an Operations Account at
the French Treasury in Paris.
The African nations therefore have only access to 15%
of their own money for national development in any
given year. If they are in need of extra money, as they
always are, they have to borrow from their own 65% in
the French Treasury at commercial rates. And that is
not all: there is a cap on the credit extended to each
member country equivalent to 20% of their public
revenue in the preceding year. So if the countries need
to borrow more than 20%, too bad; they cannot do it.
Amazingly, the final say on the C.F.A arrangements
belongs to the French Treasury, which invests the
African countries money in its own name on the Paris
Bourse (the stock exchange).
It is also the Colonial Pact that demands that France
has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources
found in the land of the Francophone countries. So
even if the African countries could get better prices
elsewhere, they cannot sell to anybody until France says
it does not want to buy those natural resources.
It is, again, the Colonial Pact that demands that in the
award of government contracts in the African countries,
French companies should be considered first; only after
that can Africans look elsewhere. It doesnt matter if
Africans can obtain better value for money elsewhere,
French companies come first, and most often get the
contracts. Currently, there is the awkward case in
Abidjan where, before the elections, former president
Gbagbos government wanted to build a third major
bridge to link the central business district (called
Plateau) to the rest of the city, from which it is
separated by a lagoon. By Colonial Pact tradition, the
contract must go to a French company, which
incidentally has quoted an astronomical price to be
paid in euros or US dollars.
Not happy, Gbagbos government sought a second
quote from the Chinese, who offered to build the bridge
at half the price quoted by the French company, and
wait for this payment would be in cocoa beans, of
which Cote dIvoire is the worlds largest producer. But,
unsurprisingly, the French said non, you cant do
that.
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.
In short, the Colonial Pact has created a legal
mechanism under which France obtains a special place
in the political and economic life of its former colonies.
THE BIG QUESTIONS
In what meaningful way can any of the 14 CFA
countries be said to be independent?
If this isn't illegal and an international crime, then what
is ?
What is it going to take for this state of indentured
servitude to end?
How much have the CFA countries lost as a result of
this 50-year (and counting) "agreement"? (Remember,
they've had to borrow their own money from the
French at commercial rates)
Do French people know they're living off the wealth of
African countries and have been doing so for over half
a century? And if they know, do they give a damn?
When will France start paying back money they've
sucked from these countries, not only directly from the
interest on cash reserves and loans these countries have
had to take out, but also on lost earnings from the
natural resources the countries sold to France below
market rates as well as the lost earnings resulting from
awarding contracts to French companies when other
contractors could have done things for less?
Does any such "agreement" exist between Britain and its
former colonies, or did they really let go when they let
go?