
La relation d’exploitation.
In light of the recent scrutiny of the China-Africa relationship (which I hope to write about soon), I was reminded of the FrancAfrique relationship which seems to always slip under the Rader.
It was as a result if this module “Politics of Francophone Africa” that I learnt of what transpire(d/s) between francophone African countries and France.
I remember sitting in class listening to the lecturer drone on. Slowly and slowly anger towards the outrageous relationship built in me. I would always maintain my stand that we could have (keyword: could have) been better off without colonization, THERE CAN NEVER BE A JUSTIFIABLE REASON FOR COLONIZATION (this is a post for another day I guess), and I say this because of the methods used by to “colonize”. This is not to say that the blame for the current stste of Africa rests solely on the exploiters –colonial masters, no, we the exploited –colonies also have ourselves to blame for the status quo. Notwithstanding, the present state of Africa (Francophone and Anglophone alike) are as a result of past/present (neo)colonial relationship and also as a result of our shortcomings (bad leadership, greed, corruption, backwards thinking, shortsightedness, you name it) as a continent. It is important to recognize the long term effects colonialism had on the continent (which should never be dismissed). However, it is high time we stopped the blame game (it’s been over 50years for some and less than for others). We need to start taking responsibilities for our present shortcomings as a continent, because I believe the continent can thrive despite the drawbacks by the effects of colonialism.
That being said let me get back to Francophone Africa. Gosh, the mere thought of it makes me angry.
They had this thing called “mission civilisatrice — civilisation mission”, and the way in which this said mission was executed is deplorable (I’ll skim through). The point of the policy of assimilation (an aspect of the mission) was to mold the Francophone people into model French citizens; by ripping away their identity, culture, language, religion, values, beliefs, and what essential made this people who they were. After which they would give them an identity modelled after that of France; by giving them French culture, values, beliefs, language, religion, etc. Although the policy of assimilation did not last for long due to the resistance of the Francophone people, after which they tried policy of association and the direct rule policy. The reason fir this mission was because France believed that the Francophone countries needed to 've civilised (be saved) and France was going to be th st saviour to cleanse and save the people of Francophone Africa from their barbaric and uncivilized ways.
That wasn’t even what made me angry the most, the bone of contention here is the “Pacte colonial” which translates to the colonial pact.
Note: if you need more information on this as I will only briefly talk about it, you can check out this book: Les Servitude du Pacte Colonial by Professor Mamadou Kouligbaly.
In the book mentioned above, Professor Mamadou highlighted the content of the pacte colonial to be:
- The francophonie: it stands for a wide network of projects and institutions which are used to further the relationship between France and its former colonies. Basically keeping the exploiter-exploited relationship alive.
- It was as a result of this pact that the Francophone countries use the same currency, the CFA Franc. Now here’s the mind bursting part: the pact demands that these 14 CFA Franc countries must deposit 65% (plus another 20% for “financial liabilities” making the total 85%) of their foreign exchange reserves in an “open account” at the French treasury in Paris.
- The monopolistic ownership of all raw materials (I mean this is already self-explanatory). I mean France gets to decide (first seats btw) whether they want or do not want any natural resource found in Francophone countries.
- The government contracts: France will be considered first for any government contract. (I don’t need to go further).
- France has the legal right to intervene using military power in any of these Francophone countries (and they only ever intervene if it serves their interest).
I am just breezing through the depth of this relationship. It is like the Francophone countries are paying France to thank them for colonizing them (and let’s assume this is the case, they have surely exceeded the years in which they spent under colonial rule, so why is it still happening?). This agreement is eating into the progress of these countries. WHY IS IT STILL VALID?
This whole thing is deplorable. Now in as much as I blame France, I also blame the Francophone countries. It has been how many years now? Why are they still following this pact? Why don’t they completely remove this detrimental agreement or re-negotiate to create a win-win relationship? What exactly is the problem? Are the leaders of these countries not concerned of this damaging agreement or is it that they are too busy being greedy to care? Do we really care about the development of this continent? If so, why are we repeating the same mistakes of the past?
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this pact is still running.
If you want to read further on this Pact, you can check out the book or check the following articles/blog posts.
https://omojuwa.com/2014/03/the-colonial-pact-how-france-retained-its-influence-in-africa-cheta-nwanze/
http://collinsoshodi.blogspot.com/2011/04/colonial-pac-international-robbers-and.htmlhttps://thisisafrica.me/france-loots-former-colonies/
http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/how-france-lives-off-africa-with-the-colonial-pact/
