SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME: CFA franc

Imagine that one spends all season working hard on the farm: tilling the soil, planting, weeding, praying for rain and sunshine in appropriate quantities, cultivating the crops and then finally harvesting them.

One week to market day, the well-tended tuberous cassava roots, for example, are harvested, peeled and prepared; they are well ground; the best garri in the world is crafted; the garri looks nice and smells even better--the yellowish one fried with palm oil, and the white one too; the type of garri that will go down even without sugar well , well .

On market day, the journey is made to the market; the garri is sold for say 10,000CFA francs. Now one begins to consider what can be done with that money: buy bread and eggs for breakfast, pay for school uniforms and fees, purchase medicines etc. One can even imagine relaxing with some nice palm wine at night. Honest work, honest money earned.

But wait!

On the way out of the market, a strange person standing at the gate of the market decides to extort significant concessions from your hard work and enterprise. This strange person demands that you give 6,500CFA francs of the 10,000CFA francs for him to keep in a bank account controlled by him alone. Then asks that you give him another, 2,000CFA francs as liability for the njangi or any other business venture you may want to use your money for. That is 8,500CFA francs of your 10,000CFA francs.

 

The person then takes that 8,500CFA francs and go play his own njangis , invest in other businesses, manufacture arms and train others, including some of your own brothers and sisters to make sure that each time he meets you at the gate of the market you will offer no resistance to his demands. If and when he feels like it, he gives you 50CFA francs called "l'aide au dévelopment" and tells you how lazy and stupid (he may have a point here) you are. But he also tells you and the world that he is your best friend and protector.

So you get home with 1,500CFA francs in your pocket: Pikin di hongri, money no dey! Papa and mama di sick, money no dey! School fees time don come, money no dey!

Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to the Communauté Financière de l'Afrique ( CFA ), where this is how things have been working for over sixty years. The January 2008 edition of the pan-African magazine, New African, reports that "the tale of this currency is extraordinarily mind-numbing!" and inspires this special commentary.

The CFA was created in 1945 by Gaullist officials in Paris. The CFA franc remains the currency of eight west African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo (UMEAO) and six central African countries:   Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon (CEMAC). In west Africa, the Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) issues the currency, while in central Africa, it is the Banque des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC).

Reporter, Regina Jere Malanda, begins the New African exposé on the CFA franc thus:

"If you think it is bad enough that the majority of the former French colonies in Africa fall in the "Bottom 50" of the least developed countries in the world, spare a thought for this fact: Poor as they are, they have, for over six decades, been depositing 65% of their foreign reserves in the French Treasury in Paris - thanks to an archaic colonial arrangement linking their local currency, the CFA franc , to the French franc and now the euro." Later on, it is learned that "another 20% of reserves [go] to cover financial liabilities."

Our largely English reading audience now gets to understand that this is an essential component of being a francophone in Africa. This is a critical underlying factor that maintains the crushing poverty in this sphere we happen to find ourselves as non-francophones. For this archaic arrangement, to have survived for so long, in part, is responsible for unending dictatorships with presidents for life, tyranny, coups and even genocides in francophone Africa.

 

But those who sit in parliament in Yaoundé and other francophonic capitals in Africa must be informed (if they are not already) about this arrangement that the president of the Ivorian National Assembly, a former Finance Minister and economist, Professor Mamadou Koulibaly, labels in New African as "financially repressive, unfair and morally indefensible." And all true representatives of our people must develop the political courage and will to terminate this arrangement immediately.

Presidents and party chairmen for life; those who parade around as the political elite with titles of "Honorables"; those in high level positions with big degrees from big universities must be obligated to focus on such poverty-inducing archaic arrangements rather than self-serving and narcissistic pursuits irrelevant to the wellbeing of our people. They must address and dismantle this arrangement immediately.

In an arrangement like this, any notion of freedom, wealth creation, progress and fundamental human dignity for francophone Africa is impossible. The "pursuit of happiness" is not possible. Modernity is passing francophone Africa by because a significant percent of their peoples' money is being controlled by France, at France's discretion, and has been so for over sixty years.

One can then only imagine the horror of some western diplomats, as was the case earlier this month in his New Year's address to the diplomatic corps in Yaoundé, when President Biya stood there and with a straight face said that Africa needs a Marshall plan.

One must also worry about the logic of all these international bureaucrats from the African Development Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Bank (including our own nationals), who parade here and give lectures on poverty alleviation, sustainable development and good governance while being fully aware of this "financially repressive, unfair and morally indefensible" archaic colonial arrangements that have been on going for over six decades.

However, we should not be quick to condemn these foreigners as being hypocrites because it will appear like we are asking foreigners to love us more than we are ready and determined to love ourselves.

However, the president of Senegal, Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, is showing such needed affection for the continent's people. It is admirable. It is patriotic. It is an example for other francophonic African leaders to follow instead of begging for alms or taking loans from China to be paid by those yet to be born; after the eternal presidents and party chairmen would have perished on their thrones.

 

In the New African report, President Wade is clear and direct: "Central bank reserves of member states must be returned to member states in one way or another. I insist on this, and particularly because we have been raising this issue for a long time."

President Wade "deplored the fact that close to 1,500 billion CFA francs generated from the surplus of West African states' foreign reserves are placed on the foreign stock markets and out of the reach of the Africans who own the money."

Professor Mamadou Koulibaly is clear and direct: "It has become vital today for the CFA franc to acquire its own existence, free of colonial stranglehold ...After the break; the ex-CFA zone must construct its own system based on simple principles. These include: establishing direct access to international markets without having to pass through a tutor (read France); and without a monetary guide (read France); establish a simple fiscal system and not complicated tax codes that are incomprehensible; have flexible exchange rates vis-à-vis major currencies." Professor Koulibaly believes that done within a democratic dispensation, free trade will do the rest for the benefit of Africa.

As it unbelievably exists today, Professor Koulibaly explains that, "the foreign reserves of the CFA African states are deposited in the French Treasury, but no African country is capable of telling you exactly how much of this hard-earned foreign reserves belong to them. Only France has the privilege to that information."

As Professor Koulibaly laments, francophone Africans have been reduced to "taxpayers for France (remember that 65% of hard currencies that the 14 CFA zone states are obliged to deposit yearly in the French Treasury!) Yet our people neither have French nationality nor access to the public goods and services made available to other French taxpayers."

The CFA franc and its archaic arrangement with the French Treasury in Paris is a slave deal. But Tiko must stop drinking only for Kumba to get drunk. We must get all 10,000CFA francs of our garri money.