In France’s former African colonies, imperialist monetary policies from Paris continue to cripple domestic economies and undermine democracy. Colonialism in Africa won’t have meaningfully come to an end until true economic sovereignty is allowed to flourish.
France secures access to markets in its 14 former colonies in Africa, to this date, 6 decades after independence. Benefits are of commercial interest: access to resources and markets. Mechanisms to support this are a shared currency (the CFA-franc), military presence, secret diplomacy and marketing its language.
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[li]Monetary control through a shared currency: the CFA-franc. It comes together with a set of regulations or so-called monetary agreements. One is to have part of the foreign exchange reserves of the 14 African countries held at the French Treasury in Paris. Nowadays, this amounts to 50% and €9.5 billion euros.[/li][li]Military presence at strategic locations, like “in Gabon for oil,” gives Hoebink as an example. Six francophone countries signed military agreements (accords de défense) or technical military cooperation agreements with France, right after independence.[/li][/ul]
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[li]Cacao from the world’s leading cacao producer, Ivory Coast, comprises of 9% of all imported cacao to France. Cameroon adds another nearly 2% to it.[/li][li]Manganese ores from Gabon comprises 2% of the total manganese going to France, used for stainless and chirurgic steel. Gabon is the world’s 2ndproducer of manganese, with 15% share of the world market and 25% of the world’s reserves. Moreover, Congo-Brazzaville exports ‘slag, ash and residues of metals and arsenic’ to France (7%) and Burkina Faso exports zinc (1.7%) to the French.[/li][li]Uranium from Niger makes 17% of the total amount of uranium used in France for nuclear power. Nigerien uranium accounts for nearly 40% of the global supply.[/li][li]Wood in the rough, mostly from Congo-Brazzaville and Central African Republic (CAR) comprises of 9% of the total imports of raw wood to France. For all wood products combined, francophone Africa represents 4% of the total import to France, with Gabon and Cameroon as the main producers.[/li][li]Fruits from the French-speaking African countries represents 7% of the total imported fruits to France. Main producers are Ivory Coast and Cameroon.[/li][li]Mineral fuels have long been a major export product from francophone African countries to France. Presently, Equatorial Guinea represents only 8% of the total exported oil to France. Chad and Gabon represent a similar share. Oil is mostly imported from other countries, like Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Russia and Angola.[/li][li]Fish from Senegal equals almost €3o million euros. Although it is only 8% of the total fish the French consume, it is 10.3% of the total amount of fish that Senegal exports. European, Russian and Chinese trawlers fish up to 250 tons per day in West-African seas (40% of it illegally) which causes overfishing and stock depletion, loss of food security and the damage of local economies. This is possible because of Europe having Fishery Agreements with 8 countries in West Africa. West-African countries miss out on an income of €1.9 billion Euros for fish-related business.[/li][/ul]