France Forces Africa to Feed It
Like the tsetse fly, Western Europe and the U.S. have been sucking the lifeline off Africa since slavery time. From Cecil Rhodes who thought he owned Zimbabwe and named it after himself – Rhodesia – to King Leopold II whose atrocities to the people of Congo is on par with Adolf Hitler, most Western countries by all intent and purpose still think and believe Africa is theirs to plunder, albeit tactfully. France’s continual naked robbery of contemporary Africa with impunity makes it stand out as the biggest tsetse fly that stinks Africa to sleep. And it is not prepared to relinquish its lifeline of livelihood on Francophone countries.
The French Republic occupies an area a little less than 250,000 square miles with a population of a little over 67 million, including five of its overseas integral regions.
But Metropolitan France, located in Western Europe, has a population a little over 65 million people and covers an area of 213,011 square miles. It is a leading tourist center in the world and one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with veto powers.
It is also a nuclear country. Its language is noted for romanticism. The population of Metropolitan France is less than that of the DR Congo and a little more than Tanzania. In terms of size, Kenya with 224,081 square miles is bigger than Metro France.
With all its achievements, political, economics, culture, etiquette, etc., France could not have survived without Africa and black people in general. It impoverished Haiti after the under-represented slaves defeated France in 1803.
The structures set up in the negotiations and supported by other Western countries and the U.S. placed Haiti in perpetual debt to France. Servicing the “debt” robbed the nascent first free black nation of any hope to develop.
When Guinea attained independence and the country’s leader, Sekou Toure, opted for total independence devoid of any French influence, the three thousand Frenchmen or so who left Guinea not only carried their acquired possessions with them, but destroyed all immovable structures such as schools, farms, edifices, among others, constructed by or with the help of the French.
This single act cowed future Francophone African political freedom fighters into submission.
When Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of the Republic of Togo, agreed to pay the “colonial debt” to France, Togo’s financial standing started to go down under. President Olympio attempted to arrest the situation by opting out of the French monetary system.
A few days later, he was assassinated. Modibo Keita followed the exact footsteps of Olympio and didn’t last as the president of the Republic of Mali. The message from France was loud and clear: You will still remain in the grip of France or else… As a matter of fact, about 61% of military coups d’état in Africa occurred in former French colonies.
The Colonial Pact currently requires 14 African countries to deposit more than 50% of their reserves in the Central Bank of France and turn around to borrow from it if and when the need arises.
The borrowing is capped at 20% of the previous year’s deposited revenue. In effect, France uses the monetary system it created for and imposed on these African countries as a tool of leverage.
It may devalue the currency and increase or decrease its circulation whenever it decides to. African leaders, up the creek without a paddle, are therefore obliged to respond to the whims and caprices of France if they want to stay in power “peacefully.”
Former French president Jacques Chirac was alleged to have said in March 2008 that “without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of twenty-third power [of the world].” As former president of France, he knew all too well what he was talking about, and he was honest in his assessment.
France, like the rest of Western Europe and the U.S., has a vested interest in keeping Africa underdeveloped for its own political and economic interests. With Francophone African countries in the vice-grip of France, African unity as envisaged by the Africa Union will continue to be a mirage.
The U.S. and the West will always hide behind France to pull strings in Africa any time they smell unity among African countries. Any African leader who emerges with an independent mind is classified as a dictator and/or an enemy, and roadblocks are placed in his way against political stability and economic development.
The European Union has done very little to stem the effort of France’s naked robbery of Africa, and so have the U.N. and other established bodies including, but not limited to, religious sects the world over.
Earlier this year, Italy’s deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio accused France of having economic policies towards Africa that have resulted in poverty and facilitated migrations across the Sahara and onto the shores of Italy.
Di Maio said, “I’ve stopped being a hypocrite, talking only about the effects of immigration, and it’s time to talk about the causes. The EU should sanction all those countries like France that are impoverishing African countries and are causing those people to leave.”
France throws its weight about its African colonies with impunity and no one dares!
Amandla wishes and hopes people of conscience will follow the bold assessment of the deputy prime minister of Italy; otherwise, they must share in the guilt of being silent over unfair political and economic practices and abuses exacted by France on its former—or rather, existing—colonies in Africa.
It’s about time Africans in the diaspora, civil organizations, religious bodies, entertainment establishments, and icons stand up to France’s unfair practices.
International demonstrations and boycotts of anything French would send a clear message to France to re-evaluate its debilitating policies towards its former colonies in Africa. The albatross of France on Africa’s neck must be loosened once and for all.