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 CFA 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.
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| Nicolas Sarkozy, French President: They have been robbing Africa since long |
The African nations therefore have access to only 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 CFA 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, again, 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 doesn’t 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 doesn’t matter even if Africans can obtain better value for money elsewhere, French companies come first, and most often get the contracts. Currently, there is a case where just before the elections in Cote d’Ivoire, the Gbagbo’s 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, Gbagbo’s government sought a second quote from the Chinese, who offered to build the bridge at half the price quoted by the French Company and payment would be in cocoa beans, of which Cote d’Ivoire is a world’s largest producer. But the French said, “non, you can’t do that”.
Under the Defence Agreements attached to the Colonial Pact (which were run by the French defence ministry ), Paris had the legal right to intervene militarily in the African countries, and also to station troops permanently in bases and military facilities in those countries, run entirely by the French.
Overall the Colonial Pact gives the French a dominant and privileged position over Francophone Africa?
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.
This is surely a big scam instituted by the French to continue to steal resources from Africa in order to survive. France would be poor and worst off without this “legitimate” neo-colonial day-light robbery.
It is time Francophone Africa wakes up to this reality that although they claim to be independent, there is hardly anything independent from the French. Francophone Africa is not independent, the French are choking them and making them poor when they should have been able to reduce poverty and improve on their infrastructure.
It is a shame that the French should be living off the meager resources of these poor African states and this has made worse the poverty situation in most Francophone Africa. They say they are developed and that they eschew corruption and embrace all those nice virtues, but behind the back, the French are really starving Africa. It is these resources that should have been used to alleviate poverty that has made the French what they are. This should not happen in this day and age. What right do these French people have to decide the fate and destiny of Africans? Why can’t Francophone Africa tell the French to get off their back, for them to have meaningful development? WAKE UP FRANCOPHONE AFRICA.
[Part of this article is taken from NewAfrican (February 2011: page 13)
6 comments:
Given the toxic French influence in francophone African states including Cameroun, is there therefore, a more ridiculous spectacle than seeing francophone Camerounians in the Denver metro area foolishly running around planning to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an illusory independence?
Takor
You mean this is true? If it is, these guys need a Mugabe urgently, he would never brook such nonsense from a former colonial master.
It is the reality, and francophone countries in Africa suffer much from french influence.
Is why english and other colony countries are developing faster than french colony countries.
I have long known this daylight robbery by the shameless French! I was glad to read the NewAfrican article on this. I think this information needs to spread, for awareness. I will try and republish it with your link embedded in the post
There is a thing you may need to understand about politics. Things are not always as you say it; black or white. The evil european and the naive african.
To understand better that pact just check its origin and its basis. African people get suddenly into th e"global" world with all of its challenges. Knowing a little about it and needing some guidance. Who better than previous colonists can teach us about that? Myself I don't see.
It think it is easy to blame oneself for our failures. We shall be ashamed, we, african francophone that 50 years after the "independence" we just look alike as we were on those days. T be exact we are getting worse: corruption, easy money, desire to hold the power, and the list is long. We shall be ashamed to have left our country to people that we are criticizing everyday from another land. We can complain in a long while, telling about how France is the country of the Droits de l'Homme but as long as we do nothing, not just talking about things from a distance... as long as we do nothing concrete, nothing will change. There is no secret about that. Our countries are ours, our destiny is in our hands: we chosed to let foreigners decide about our way of living. We chosed to let them hold the keys of our countries. In the start it was normal, we just knew a little about everything; but now that we have acquired more knowledge, understood how things are working, do we still need to behave the same?
The inability of these African Countries freed from the French not being able to operate 100% efficiently affects negatively the countries that surround them. This sort of white supremacy shall end and all the documented economic damages and harm caused by France shall be compensated by Franch through reparations. Also, France must be made to pay back Haiti for the money coerced from it. The United States in particular, and others too, should put a freeze on French assets until such time these compensations has been meet. Boycotts of French produced goods and economic sanctions should be incorporated.
I for one get sick and tired from all the excuses given about corrupt African Leadership as a reason why these black African Countries can't evolve forward. Any African leaders who oppose this coming to freedom and has been found to have profited throiugh collaborating with this or any other entity against the good will of the people shall be severely punished not to rule out death. This idea should be carried out without further delay.
This reminds me of how blacks in America who deposit their monies into American banks in their neighborhoods could not get loans from those very same banks to improve on their lives. Typical white supremacy demonic garbage.
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