Analysis
14 African countries forced by France to pay colonial tax for the benefits of slavery and colonization.
All I knew about this unprecedented story was that the colonial franc still needed to be used in the former colonies. This reading can be really bad. And that is called independence? This is a gag par excellence. But it must also be called shameful that in 50-60 years these countries have failed in a joint effort to hunt down the French and their so-called ‘civilization’ to the deepest pit of hell. It is equally shameful that intellectuals in Europe have barely touched their conscience, apart from small impulses in the Scandinavian countries.
France has really pushed exploitation to the summit. They peacefully let millions of Africans work their way to their knees and lead their wars. 1 million Africans fought for them in World War II. No wonder France – and England too – had such low losses.
Did you know that many African countries still pay colonial taxes on France since their independence until today? When Sékou Touré of Guinea decided to leave the French colonial empire in 1958, the colonial elite in Paris became so angry that the French administration in Guinea destroyed everything in the country in what was, in their opinion, one of the benefits of French colonization. Three thousand French left the country and took away all their possessions, destroying everything that could not be moved: schools, nursing homes, public administration buildings were destroyed; Cars, books, medicines, instruments in research institutes, tractors were smashed and disabled; Horses, cows on the farms were killed and food in department stores were burned or poisoned.
The purpose of this outrageous act was to send a clear message to all other colonies that the consequences for the rejection of France would be very high.
Slowly fear spread throughout the African elite and no one ever found the courage after the events in Guinea to follow the example of Sékou Touré, whose motto was: “We prefer freedom in poverty to prosperity in slavery.”
Sylvanus Olympio, the first President of the Republic of Togo, a tiny country in West Africa, found a middle-ground solution with France.
He did not want his country to continue to belong to the French Dominion, which is why he refused to sign the colonization pact with De Gaulle, but he agreed to pay an annual amount to France for the so-called benefits, the Togo by the French Colonization received.
It was the only condition for the French not to destroy the country before they left. However, the amount of money estimated by France was so high that the payment of the so-called “colonial debt” amounted to almost 40% of the 1963 state budget.
The financial situation of the newly independent Togo was so unstable that Olympio, to get out of this situation, decided to leave the French colonial currency currency FCFA (the Francs for the African colonies) and issue its own currency.
On January 13, 1963, three days after his country began printing its own money, a unit of illiterate soldiers with France’s help murdered the first elected president in the new independent Africa. It was a former French foreign legionnaire named Etienne Gnassingbe, who reportedly received $ 612 from the French Embassy for his job.
Olympio’s dream was to build an independent and self-sufficient and self-reliant country. But the French did not like this idea.
On June 30, 1962, the first president of the Republic of Mali decided to withdraw from the French colonial currency FCFA, which was forced on 12 newly independent African countries. For the Malian president, who tended towards a socialist economy, it was clear that the continuation of a colonial pact with France was a trap, a burden on the country’s development.
On November 19, 1968, Keita, like Olympia, is the victim of a coup committed by another French legionnaire, Lieutenant Moussa Traoré.
In fact, in this turbulent period of the African struggle for liberation from European colonization, the French have repeatedly used many foreign legionnaires to carry out coups against elected presidents:
– On 1 January 1966, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, a former French foreign legionnaire, struck a coup against David Dacko, the first president of the Central African Republic.
On January 3, 1966, Maurice Yaméogo, the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now called Burkina Faso, was the victim of a coup d’état conducted by Aboubacar Sangoulé Lamizana, an ex-foreign legionary who opposed the French troops in Indochina and Algeria Independence movements of these countries fought.
– On October 26, 1972, Mathieu Kérékou, the bodyguard of President Hubert Maga, first President of the Republic of Benin, carried out a coup d’état after undergoing French military schools from 1968 to 1970.
In fact, 67 coups have been committed in 26 African countries over the past 50 years, 16 of which were French ex-colonies; 61% of the coups took place in francophone Africa.
More than 45 coups in former colonies show that France is active in keeping a tight grip on its colonies, whatever the cost.
In March 2008, then French President Jacques Chirac said:
“Without Africa, France will slide into the rank of a third-rate power.”
Chirac’s predecessor Francois Mitterand predicted in 1957 that:
“Without Africa, France will not have a history in the 21st century.”
At the moment I write this article, 14 African countries are being forced by France by a colonial pact to deposit 85% of their foreign reserves in the French central bank under the control of the French Minister of Finance. To date (2014), Togo and 13 other African countries still have to pay a colonial debt. African leaders who refuse are killed or victims of a coup. Those who obey are supported and rewarded by France with a lush lifestyle, while their people live in extreme poverty and despair.
It is such a bad system that it is even being condemned by the EU, but France is not prepared to give up its colonial system, which is pouring some $ 500 billion into the French Treasury every year.
We often accuse African leaders of corruption and that they serve the interests of Western countries rather than their own people, but there is a clear explanation for the behavior. They behave this way because they are afraid to get killed or become victims of a coup. They want them to be supported by a strong nation in case of aggression or riots. But unlike the protection of a friendly nation, the protection offered by the West can often only be obtained in exchange for not serving its own people and the interests of the country.
African leaders would work in the interests of their people if they were not constantly being circumvented and harassed by the colonial lands.
In 1958, fearing the consequences of demanding independence from France, Leopold Sédar Senghor said: “The choice of the Senegalese people is independence; but they only want it in friendship with France, not in dispute. ”
From then on, France accepted only “paper independence” for its colonies, but signed binding “cooperation agreements” of them, which regulated in detail the nature of the relations with France, in particular the ties to France’s colonial currency (the franc) French educational system, military and commercial preferences.
Here are the 11 most important components of the Colonization Continuation Pact since 1950:
#1. The colonial debts for the benefits of the colonization of France.
The new “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure built by France.
# 2. Automatic confiscation of national reserves
African countries must deposit their national money reserves in the French central bank.
France holds the national reserves of 14 African countries since 1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
“The handling of monetary policy for so many different countries is straightforward because it is regulated by the French Treasury without any contact with the central tax authorities of any of the WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union) countries. The terms of the agreement include that each African country is required to contribute at least 65% of its foreign exchange reserves to an operations account in the French Treasury and another 20% to financial liabilities.
The CFA banks also set a credit maximum for each country, which is equivalent to 20% of the public revenue of the previous year. Although the BEAC and the BCEAO have a possibility of overdrawing at the French Treasury, the approval of the French Treasury is required beforehand. This has recorded the currency reserves of African countries in its name at the Paris Stock Exchange.
In short, more than 80% of the foreign reserves of these African countries are controlled by the French Treasury. The two CFA banks are African by name but can not run their own monetary policy. The countries themselves do not know, nor are they told, how much in the pool of foreign reserves they own as a group or individually.
The profits of the investments of these funds in the pool are supposed to flow back into the pool, but there is no accountability of the banks and not for the countries. The limited group of high officials in the French Treasury who are aware of the amount on the “operations accounts” or where these funds are being invested or whether they are making profits, has no permission to pass on any information to the CFA banks, “wrote Dr. Gary K. Busch.
It is now estimated that France keeps the $ 500 billion of African money in the Treasury, and it will do anything to fight against those who want to shed light on the darkness of this ancient empire.
The African countries have no access to this money.
France allows them to withdraw only 15% of the money in any given year. If they need more than that, they have to borrow it from their own 65% Treasury at the usual interest rate.
To make matters worse, France imposes a limit on borrowing money from the reserve. This is limited to 20% of the public revenue of the previous year. If countries had to borrow more of their own money, France has a veto.
Former French President Jacques Chirac spoke recently about African countries’ money in French banks. Here is a video in which he talks about the French exploitation system:
“We must be honest and admit that a large part of our banks’ money comes from the exploitation of the African continent.”
# 3. France has preferential rights to every newly discovered resource in the country France has the first right to purchase all natural resources discovered in their ex-colonies. Only when France has said that it is not interested can an African country look for other partners.
# 4. Priority for French interests and companies in public procurement and tendering.
When awarding government contracts, French companies must be considered first and only then can countries look elsewhere. It does not matter if Africans get better conditions elsewhere.
Consequently, in many of the French ex-colonies, the greater economic riches are in the hands of Frenchmen. In the Ivory Coast z. For example, the French own and control ALL major resources – water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and larger banks. The same applies to trade, construction and agriculture.
After all, as I wrote in an earlier article, Africans now live on a continent owned by Europeans!
# 5. Exclusive rights for the supply of military equipment and the training of officers.
Through a sophisticated scheme of scholarships, loans and “defense agreements” in conjunction with the Colonial Pact, Africans must send their senior officers to France for training or to French-operated training facilities.
The situation on the continent is such that France has trained and nurtured hundreds, even thousands, of traitors. They are sleeper when not in use, and they are activated when needed for a coup or other purpose!
# 6. The right of France to send troops and intervene militarily in the country to defend its interests.
According to what is called the “defense agreement” in the colonial pact, France has the legal right to intervene militarily in African countries and also to permanently station troops in military bases and military installations operated entirely by Frenchmen.
When President Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast attempted to end the country’s French exploitation, France organized a coup. During the long process of overthrowing Gbagbo, French tanks, combat helicopters and special forces intervened directly in the conflict, firing on civilians and killing many.
How frivolous France was that the French business community would have lost millions of dollars when the French army massacred 65 unarmed civilians and wounded 1,200 in Abidjan’s hasty 2006 eviction.
When France made a success of its coup and handed over power to Alassane Outtara, France called on Outtara to compensate the French business community for the losses in the civil war.
The Ouattara government paid her twice as much as she had claimed as losses.
# 7. Obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language of the education system
Oui, monsieur. Vous devez parlez français, la langue d Molière! (Yes, sir. You must speak French, the language of Molière!)
An organization for the dissemination of the French language and culture has been created, called “Francophonie” with several subdivisions and affiliated organization, overseen by the French Foreign Minister.
As this article demonstrates, if French was the only language you talked about, you would only have 4% access to human knowledge and ideas. Very limited.
#8th. Obligation to use the French colonial money
This is the real dairy cow for France, but it is such a bad system that it is even condemned by the EU, but France is not prepared to deviate from this colonial system, which brings $ 500 billion from Africa into the treasury.
With the introduction of the euro currency in Europe, other European countries discovered the French exploitation system. Many, especially the Nordic countries, were appalled and advised France to abolish the system, but to no avail.
# 9. Obligation to submit an annual report to France
Without report, no money.
In any case, the secretariat of the ex-colonial central banks and the secretariat of the two-year meetings of the ex-colonial ministers of finance of the French central bank are occupied.
# 10. Not to enter into a military alliance with any country unless authorized by France.
African countries generally have few regional military alliances. Most countries only have alliances with their ex-colonizers! (Funny, but you can not help it!)
In the case of France’s ex-colonies, they are prohibited from forming military alliances other than those offered to them.
# 11. Commitment to join France in a situation of war or global crisis.
More than a million African soldiers fought for the defeat of Nazism and fascism during World War II.
Their contribution is often ignored or minimized, but if France considers it only took six weeks for Germany to defeat France in 1940, it knows that Africans might be useful in fighting for the “Grandeur de la France” in the future.
There is almost something psychopathic in the relationship between France and Africa.
First, France is obsessed with plundering and exploiting Africa since the times of slavery. In addition, there is a complete lack of creativity and imagination of the French elite to think beyond the past and tradition.
Finally, France has two institutions that have been completely frozen in the past, occupied with paranoid and psychopathic “high officials” who spread an apocalyptic fear if France were to change, and whose ideological reference comes from the romanticism of the 19th century: it are the finance ministers and the foreign ministers of France.
These two institutions are not only a threat to Africa, but also to the French themselves.
It is up to us Africans to liberate ourselves without asking for permission, because I still can not understand how, for example, 450 French soldiers in Côte d’Ivoire were able to control a population of 20 million !?
The first reaction of the people, when they hear of the French colonial tax, is often the question: “Until when?”
By historical comparison – France forced Haiti to pay the modern equivalent of $ 21 billion from 1804 to 1947 (nearly a century and a half) for the loss of French slave traders and the liberation of Haitian slaves.
The African countries only pay their colonial tax for 50 years so far but for how much longer?!
