Kristian Laubjerg – The myth of French decolonization

How France maintained ‘Francafrique’, and why it might not last.

Kristian Laubjerg spent most of his professional life in development, firstly for the Danish Development Agency and lastly for UNICEF. In 2008, he established the first home-based health care association in Senegal. He received a Ph.D in Social Psychology from Copenhagen University in collaboration with Glasgow and Dar es Salaam Universities.

Cross-posted from Other News

Picture by Tommy Miles

France without Africa is like a vehicle without fuel.1

Introduction

The predominant story about France concerning Africa is its untiring efforts to defend Africa’s interests in the UN Security Council; it is about France promoting civilization among primitive tribes in Africa within the context of a superior European culture, promoting democracy and human rights. Sarkozy’s 2007 speech to Senegalese students suggests this perception is still strong. He concluded his pronouncements to the generation of future leaders of Senegal by stating that Africa has not yet developed nor entered history, thus displaying his ignorance of Africa’s cultural heritage.

Rarely do we hear the many accounts of assassinated leaders who prioritized the welfare and development of their people and nation rather than France. Never do we hear about the manipulation of election campaigns favoring pro-French candidates, and seldom do we hear about the straight jacket of the monetary system introduced by France to keep its former colonies in eternal servitude. Colonialism has mostly been presented as a humanitarian act committed by civilized and cultured Europeans, while the fact is that entire nations were ripped apart by colonialism, thus continuing the destruction of Africa that started with the enslavement of Africans centuries earlier.

What slavery and colonialism did not destroy is today being targeted by the forceful economic impact of Western economies being promoted in the name of a neo-liberal ideology by international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and bilateral aid agencies. Outside of Africa, France has an image of a nation that champions the best of human civilization, especially in arts, including literature, cuisine, fashion, wine, and philosophy.

France is also strongly associated with developing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It boasts of being the cradle of democracy and exhibits the core values of democracy in its national motto: freedom, equality, and brotherhood. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. But few are those visitors to this attractive country who are familiar with France’s continued oppression and exploitation of its former African colonies and, in many cases, its neutralization of individuals perceived as a threat to French interests.

Background

European exploitation of Africa began as early as the 16th century when enslaved Africans began to arrive in the Americas. Since then, there have been plenty of accounts of rebellion against European traders and plantation holders. These rebellions, a testament to the resilience and determination of Africans to determine their destiny, often continued on African soil when African rulers felt threatened by the European invaders. Europe’s subjugation of Africa did not stop with the enslavement of its people. Still, it extended to extracting natural resources such as sugar, coffee, cotton palm oil, petroleum, copper, chromium, platinum, tobacco, gold, and uranium. The industrialization of European countries depended largely on refining raw materials imported from Africa.

Until the end of the 19th century, Africa was up for grabs by anybody on the principle of first come, first served. European powers agreed that dividing Africa between themselves would be a better solution. The Berlin Conference in 1884, a pivotal event that significantly impacted Africa, facilitated the colonization of Africa and paved the way for the extensive exploitation of its vast resources. Fourteen countries took part in the conference. The big ’winners’ were France, Great Britain, Germany and Portugal. The USA participated, as did several smaller European countries, like Denmark and the Netherlands. Borders were defined without consideration of national and ethnic characteristics, thus causing frictions and wars that continue until this very day.

France took possession of most countries in West and Central Africa. At the same time, England colonized East and Southern African countries, Nigeria, and Ghana in West Africa. Germany gained control of Tanzania, Togo, Cameroon, and Namibia, while Portugal took command of Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and Cape Verde. After establishing the United Nations at the end of the Second World War, independence movements swept over Africa. Elites of educated Africans facilitated the spread of ideas about the right to national independence, free from exploitation and control by European colonial powers.

Thus, in the 1960s, most African colonies became nominally independent, except those ruled by Portugal, which gained independence in the mid-1970s when the dictatorship of Salazar in Portugal ended in 1974. With its defeat in two world wars, Germany lost its colonies, starting at the end of the First World War. The League of Nations passed the responsibility for those former German colonies to other European powers, except for South-West Africa (Namibia), which was handed over to the rule by the white minority population of the Union of South Africa.

In many cases, especially in French-ruled territories, decolonization evolved into a permanent state of neo-colonialism. Since 2021, this has resulted in military coups in the three West African countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, where the new leaders, with significant backing by the populations, have demanded a total break of France’s neo-colonial influence, which since September 2023 have formed an Alliance of Sahel States (ASS). Former South African President Thabo Mbeki refers to the coup leaders as African patriots fighting against French neo-colonialism.

The three rebellious countries to French interference in the affairs of sovereign countries were joined by Senegal in March 2024, when the Pastef Party, which had opposed the French-endorsed president until then, gained the presidency. Pastef ran the election campaign on demands of renegotiating all previous contracts entered with France and its transnational enterprises and introducing a national monetary system, thus breaking with the one introduced by France, when the territories were still dependencies of France.

Our argument

In this essay, it is a significant point of our argument that France never granted actual independence to its former African territories. Observations of France’s efforts to decolonize the African territories over the last 60 years suggest that France, with support from its Western allies and often acting as an instrument for Western interests, will continue its opposition to any African government that pays more attention to the welfare of its people and national interests than cooperation with France, as defined by the cooperation agreements signed at the time of being granted independency status.

The international status of France and the financial gains from its transnational enterprises depend on continued control of its former African territories. France also relies on its former territories to justify its permanent membership in the Security Council, where the West sees France as the ambassador of Africa. Gone are the days when France, with impunity, got away with assassinating nationalist leaders and undertook military interventions to ensure its authority.

Today, we notice a growing trend by France to shift its control strategy from open meddling in elections, elimination of nationalist leaders, and military interventions to more subtle exploitation of these countries through its control of the monetary system. Through agreements with all the CFA countries, France controls all financial links between the CFA countries and the outside world.

During the last sixty years since independence was granted to the African colonies, we have noticed little improvement in their development. The main difference is that during colonial domination, these countries were ruled by representatives of the French government, but today, national elites have taken over as agents for foreign domination and exploitation.

From dreams of Pan-African cooperation to Neo-colonial dependency

Independence to African colonies rarely came as a matter of course. Armed resistance, especially in French West Africa, often preceded the granting of national sovereignty. Independence carried the expectation and the promise of political and economic autonomy, self-reliance, and the Africanization of business, Pan-Africanism, and non-alignment. Despite this, France frequently succeeded in having its candidates govern these new nations despite intense and widespread resistance organized by opposition groups. Cameroon provides a good illustration of how difficult the transition to national independence could be. Um Nyobé was slain in the bush by the French army in 1958. The struggle for genuine autonomy continued in Cameroon throughout the 1960s against a government considered a puppet of France. The last opposition leader was sentenced and executed in 1971.

The colonial powers of West European countries justified their conquest and dominance of African countries with their ‘civilizing’ impact on primitive African societies. The civilizing impact was meant to justify slaughtering and subjugating them to make them conform to Western values, claiming to support good order, freedom, equality, and justice. The benefits to Europe from exploiting Africa’s natural resources were rarely mentioned, although they played an all-important role in France’s continued control of former colonies. The atrocities committed under the umbrella of European culture and civilization have been thoroughly documented over the many centuries when Europe ruled the world, imposing its order of misogynist patriarchy, slavery and racism, colonialism, religious intolerance, repression of thought, and environmental destruction in the service of economic exploitation.2

Implementation of France’s decolonization policies

From the onset of General Charles de Gaulle’s presidency in 1958, it became apparent that he did not think France stood to gain anything from granting independence to its colonies in Africa and elsewhere. The African continent constitutes an indispensable provider of natural resources to manufacturing industries in France. At the beginning of the 1980’s, the importation of critical minerals from Africa to France were as follows: uranium 100% (Gabon and Niger), 90% of bauxite (Guinea), 76% manganese (Gabon and South Africa), 59% cobalt (Zaire, Zambia), 57% copper (Zaire and Zambia), and phosphate 56% (Maroc and Togo). Besides, 70% of petrol is extracted worldwide by Total in Angola, Cameroon, Congo, and Gabon.

It was, therefore, not surprising that President de Gaulle chose as his principal advisor on African affairs an individual who did not abstain from murder to promote France’s economic and political interests. The man in charge of securing France’s continued dominance over the future of its former colonies was Jacques Foccart. Under his direct supervision, it is estimated that France, in the most brutal and inhumane manner, was directly responsible for the assassinations of seven leaders out of a total of sixteen. Foccart’s main concern was to secure resources for France’s transnational corporations. He developed personal contacts with all African presidents in former French colonies.

He understood how to manipulate a few of them–such as the presidents of Gabon and Cote d’Ivoire–to serve as intermediaries with Presidential colleagues in the interests of France. This became known as Françafrique, which is defined as France’s sphere of influence over its former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. In this manner, Françafrique became instrumental in France’s business mafia and its exploitation of Africa’s natural resources. For almost 40 years, until he died in 1997, Jacque Foccart had a direct influence on France’s policies in its African territories. His impact is strongly felt even today.

Reviewing France’s approach to staying in power, we can detect several overlapping procedures among Foccart’s preferred measures to secure its leadership. The first would be to influence the choice of the head of state and individuals to key government positions.3 If France failed to gain popular support for its leadership choice, it would resort to a counter plan, often consisting of a plot to eliminate the national leader concerned. Such a plot would be executed in utmost secrecy and preferably made to look like local conflicts, such as was the case when Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso was killed by his ‘friend’ and comrade in arms, Blaise Campaoré, in 1987. In a few instances, Focccart failed to obtain presidential approval for his plans to eliminate a disloyal President. It happened with President Touré in Guinea after he had asked the Guinean population if it wanted to enter a cooperation agreement with France.

The outcome of the referendum was a clear rejection of the proposal. Touré then developed a national monetary system. Foccart initially advised President de Gaulle to kill him, but de Gaulle had another idea of bringing the country to its knees. France printed millions of counterfeit banknotes overnight and flooded Guinea with them. The impact was disastrous and is still felt today in Guinea. The reaction of France served as a warning to other countries seeking national sovereignty. Sekou Touré enjoyed positive recognition among African leaders. The president of Togo, Sylvanus Olympio, designated him as one of his principal advisors. Olympio did not live long enough to regret this. He was killed and disposed of in front of the US embassy in Lome.

Cooperation and defense agreements with former African colonies

Before obtaining independence, Foccart required that all countries sign a cooperation agreement covering cultural, economic, and defense issues. In early 1957, France conceived the establishment of an organization that would ensure French governance of the African regions. The dream of establishing a French Sahara suffered a final blow with the outcome of the Algerian war in 1962, which led to Algeria’s independence. Based on Algeria’s and Guinea’s experiences, France would only grant independence after signing cooperation and defense agreements that ensured continued access to essential natural resources.

When independence was given in the 1960s, France entered defense and cooperation agreements with 23 former colonies. Training national armies permitted France to reduce its military presence from 30.000 soldiers in the 1960s to 15.000 in the 1980s. From 1945 to 2005, France conducted more than 130 military interventions in Africa, most of them in its former colonies. Since the independence of its colonies in the 1960s, France has intervened militarily more than 50 times on the continent.

France’s terrorizing power

Any African leader who showed more interest in developing his country rather than supporting France’s neocolonial policies made a grave error and put himself in the firing line of Foccart’s elimination programs. There is little doubt that the success of the Foccart strategy rests on fear and terror. Foccart had tremendous power and occasionally executed decisions without seeking prior presidential approval, as in the case of Mamadou Dia, the head of the first independent government in Senegal. France thought he was more interested in developing the rural areas and strengthening Senegal’s cooperation with other African countries. The French head of the Chamber of Commerce in Dakar advised Mamadou Dia that he limits all his talk of African socialism to the impoverished rural masses and turns over the more profitable zones to the private sector run by French businesses.

In understanding with President Senghor, Mamadou Dia was accused of a coup d’etat. To counteract any resistance from Mamadou Dia, Foccart alerted the French parachutes on bases in Senegal. Similar measures were taken in Gabon when the military tried to unseat President Mba. Foccart had the French army intervene because President Mba was loyal to the interests of France. In 1963, he had the Togolese president Sylvanus Olympio killed. While advocating for stronger ties with the anglophone world, especially with the UK, USA, and Nigeria, Olympio made several efforts to strengthen anti-colonial forces among African countries. As prime minister of Togo, he was a thorn in the eye of the French when he made Sekou Touré of Guinea a special adviser to his government.

Foccart blocked the grace of Pompidou of the Cameroonian opposition leader Ernest Ouandié, who was condemned to death and executed in 1971. In 1987, Foccart orchestrated the killing of Thomas Sankara, the popular president of Burkina Faso. The decision to have him killed is said to have been taken during the visit of President Mitterand in 1986. During an official dinner, Sankara criticized France for collaborating with Apartheid South Africa. His speech became the final nail in his coffin when the French Intelligence Services, in collaboration with the CIA, decided to get rid of Sankara. In 1994, Foccart organized the rehabilitation of Mobuto, who, since the murder of Patrice Lumumba, had kept Congo in abject poverty while his wealth compared to that of several decades of financial aid to the country.

It was hoped that the neo-colonization of its former African territories would have ended when Foccart died in 1997. But this was not to happen. France continued its crimes against the interests and well-being of entire populations of its former colonies. Its last military intervention occurred in Cote d’Ivoire in 2011 when the military paved the way for France’s presidential candidate.

CFA: the invisible weapon

The heritage of General de Gaulle weighs heavily on France’s efforts to accommodate its decolonization procedures to changes in the political environment. Fortunately for France, it still has a powerful trump card, namely that of the CFA – Communauté Financière Africaine. Moreover, that card is virtually impossible for its users to trace and leaves no visible link between its victims and the cause of their misery. The CFA has proven to be as efficient a weapon as all previous attempts to control West and Central African countries.

Therefore, the CFA currency has been targeted by national leaders and pan-African economists. The issue of national currency also entered the recent presidential campaign of Ousmane Sonko of the Pastef Party. Initially, the CFA was promoted under the slogan of promoting economic and social stability in the former colonies, while the reality is that the CFA continues to keep these countries in servile poverty and without any means available for the development of local industries, leaving all profits to the French state and its private enterprises, such as Bolloré, Total, Areva, Bouygues, Auchan, and many more.

A global review of economies suggests that hardly any country has advanced economically with its monetary system controlled by a foreign power. This is the case with the CFA introduced by the French Minister of Finance in December 1945 to strengthen a post-war weak franc. Contrary to actual realities, France introduced the CFA with the rationale of its guarantee by pegging it to the French franc. Even experts take for granted the view that the two CFA central banks in Dakar and Yaonde are issuing the CFA franc and benefit from an “unlimited guarantee” from the French Treasury.

In a recent publication,4 a well-known Senegalese economist argues that this so-called “guarantee” is a convenient myth that legitimizes the French government’s continued interference in the economic and monetary affairs of African countries in the post-independence era.”5 The monetary agreement with its former African territories allows France to control all imports and exports. This agreement gives France total control of the economies of its former colonies. The beneficiaries of this system are, first and foremost, French enterprises. Foreign currency reserves belonging to West and Central African nations are held at the Bank of France. The quantity in principle owned by these countries was estimated at 36,5 tons in 2017.6 Loans obtained in CFA to finance projects, such as infrastructure development, favor French multinationals operating on the continent at the expense of the development of local enterprises.

The French Government is represented on the boards of the two CFA central banks for West and Central Africa with veto power, enabling France to use the CFA currency as a weapon. This is done by establishing a financial embargo: restricting the dissident government’s access to its bank accounts at the central bank or stopping refinancing the domestic banking system and financial operations with the outside world. France used this power effectively during the civil war in Cote d’Ivoire when President Gbagbo was forced from power. The French Treasury blocked Cote d’Ivoire from using the operations account. When this was not enough to stop President Gbagbo from advancing plans to develop a national currency, France intervened militarily to get France’s preferred candidate to the helm of power.

The French army had President Laurent Gbagbo arrested in April 2011 and later taken to the International Criminal Court in Haag in 2011. Gbagbo had become too close to Colonel Ghaddafi of Libya, especially with plans of developing an alternative monetary system to the CFA. At the request of France, NATO forces had President Ghadafi killed less than six months later, in October 2011. France removed two significant threats that could obstruct its continued use of the CFA currency, thus maintaining the neo-colonial dominance of West and Central African countries. Most recently, France used the CFA currency military potential in early 2022 with the military government in Mali.

Human development in former French colonies

It should be expected that cooperation agreements with an advanced European industrial country like France would have had a substantial positive bearing on any African partner country. More than 60 years of French tutelage and continued neo-colonial control should have impacted the partner countries positively, making them arrive at a higher human development level than other African countries without such an agreement. However, a glance at the statistics in the report on the Human Development Index prepared by the United Nations shows that this is far from the case. For years, the UN has applied a summary measure of human development. The Human Development Index was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone.

The latest ranking published in 2024 shows that the countries focused upon in this essay rank among the poorest in the world. While France is positioned as number 28, Niger, which satisfies France’s need for uranium, is ranked number 189, only four places from the bottom position held by Somalia, which has been undergoing years of civil war. Gabon, the base of France’s largest oil exploration enterprises, occupies a modest number, 124, while Mali and Burkina Faso rank numbers 188 and 185, respectively. Senegal, which has enjoyed a period of relative stability since it gained independence, only gets a ranking of 169. It is ironic and tragic that France, which boasts of being the origin of the demand for a better and more equal world through its deeds of neo-colonial activities, has contributed to widespread poverty and growing global inequality.

Where would Africa be today without France?

It is worthwhile to speculate on how development could have advanced and brought welfare to people in West Africa if France had not interfered with the genuine national interests of these former colonies. A similar question could be asked anywhere a colonial power has imposed its will. What would have happened to DRC, formerly Congo, had Lumumba not been killed by the Belgians in connivance with the CIA back in 1961, only a few months after independence? Which course could history have taken if Mamadou Dia in Senegal had been allowed to continue his work, and how could Burkina Faso have developed if Thomas Sankara had not been eliminated in 1987? Although France interfered against the national interests of these heads of state and the aspirations of their respective populations, their thinking and actions did indeed influence future generations of leaders.

Sixty years have passed since the political ideas of Senegal’s first prime minister, Mamadou Dia, brought him on a collision course with his president, Senghor, and France. Under the influence of Mamadou Dia’s political thinking, Captain Thomas Sankara became president of Burkina Faso in 1983. Dia and Sankara have greatly influenced the current leadership of the four countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. These leaders express closer relationships with African cultures than with that of Senghor’s Greek-roman France. As such, they are militant anti-colonialists. Just as Dia and Sankara sought friendship and alliance with the Soviet Block and China, the four countries seek to develop new partnerships with governments to help liberate them from the entrapment by France.

Considering this background, it seems reasonable to conclude that sovereign development in West and Central Africa has been halted for at least half a century. Suppose the political thoughts of Mamadou Dia and Sankara had been given a chance to develop and be implemented. In that case, it is safe to conclude that much tragedy, indicated by high rates of infant and maternal mortality as well as a high percentage of young people fleeing to Europe, would have been avoided. West and Central African countries could have enjoyed a state of welfare like that known in European countries. It is, therefore, high time the three ASS countries and Senegal, together with other African countries, reset their relationship with France.

France – get out!

A grass-roots movement founded by Guy Marius Sagna helped to sensitize the people of Senegal to the problems associated with its continued dependency on France. Sagna founded in 2017 a grassroots movement named FRAPP. This movement spread quickly to the entire country. Guy Marius Sagna was able to mobilize hundreds of thousands of supporters, especially youth, under the slogan “France, get out.” There is little doubt that he helped to fertilize the ground for the victory of Ousmane Sonko’s Pastef. His movement fed into Sonko’s campaign promises of a national currency and probably also contributed to building support for the regime changes in the three countries of ASS.

FRAPP has demanded reviews of mining codes and contracts with foreign transnational enterprises. Since the establishment of FRAPP, its founder, Guy Marius Sagna, has spent a disproportionate amount of time in prison at the order of former President Macky Sall. Today, he is a member of the national assembly in Senegal, representing Pastef, the governing party. As the name of Sagna’s grassroots movement suggests, it is not only France that is being targeted. His focus is on the political autonomy and economic development of Africa, and as such, his movement is a proper Pan-African movement that goes beyond the country of origin. The slogans of FRAPP also resounded among the youth of the three ASS countries. Therefore, military governments enjoy popular support for their autonomy and sovereignty programs.

The wound from decolonization

This essay shows that development has yet to arrive to former French African colonies. We have documented a direct line from Guinea’s President Sekou Touré and Senegal’s head of its first independent Government, Mamadou Dia, via Thomas Sankara to the Pan-African policies of Ousmane Sonko in solidarity with the three countries having formed the Alliance of Sahel States. What these and other leaders had in common was their wish to advance the welfare of Africa’s populations through collaboration with other African countries in partnership with that part of the international community, which respects Africa’s sovereign right to national development. Such rights can only be executed when the imperial forces institutionalized by large transnational enterprises and the international financial organizations, such as the World Bank and IMF, have been broken.

As the only former European colonial power, France has enormous difficulties assisting its old colonies in gaining sovereignty. Despite its national motto of ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité,’ inequality has increased significantly in its former possessions in West and Central Africa, both in terms of comparison with developed countries and within country. The American combatant against racial inequality, Malcolm X, described the impact of slavery as a wound that cannot be healed because “The Knife is Still in Our Backs.”7 Malcolm X’s metaphor of slavery applies equally well to the victims of colonization. To repair the harm caused, the knife needs to be removed, and the wound needs to be healed.

This has proven impossible for France because of its lack of political will and the influence of transnational enterprises. The system of enslavement of the past has found new ways of exploitation under the patronage of neo-liberal capitalism marketed to the ‘independent’ countries as democracy wrapped in the clothing of human rights. The capitalist system remains as dependent on the exploitation of the world as ever. Suppose Africa could demand a fair resource price; the system would implode. Neo-colonial global inequality is a requirement to maintain the West’s standard of living. Therefore, neo-liberal capitalism will never grant African nations freedom since it would entail profit loss. Freedom, equality, and brotherly justice will never be given to Africa since the wealth and welfare of Europe and the West depend on the continued impoverishment of the masses of Africa.

The only solution, therefore, is to do as the four West African countries have done: Demand that France get out and cut all strings to Paris, which would block their sovereign development. These four countries are not merely under threat from the bloc of Western countries but also from their young electorate. We believe the five-year election period will be inadequate to replace colonial structures established over the last century, including more than 60 years of neo-colonial governance, reinforcing dependency on France and the West. Steps must be taken to allow African countries to develop economic and political structures that support sovereign countries and administrations, thus putting an end to the injustices committed since the beginning of slavery. The world will not get better on its own.

Notes

1 Antoine Glaser, AfricaFrance. Quand les dirigeants africains deviennent les maîtres du jeu, Fayard, 2014.

2 Pierre Vespirini, What to do with the past, no 146, New Left Review, 2024.

3 Fanny Pigeaud, Ndongo Samba Sylla, De la démocratie en Françafrique: Une histoire de l’impérialisme électoral, La Découverte, 2024.

4 Contemporary Issues in African Trade & Trade Finance (CIAT) Vol 8, Afreximbank, 2023.

5 Ndongo Samba Sylla, The French “Guarantee” of CFA Franc Convertibility: Political and Economic Aspects of a Myth, 2024.

6 Fanny Pigeaud, Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency The CFA Franc Story, 2021.

7 Kehinde Andrews, The Knife is Still in Our Backs: Reparations Washing and the Limits of Reparatory Justice Campaigns, Development and Change, 16 August 2024.

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