The euro zone continues to falter as uncertainties surrounding the fiscal actions of Greece and Italy, skyrocketing unemployment figures and living costs lead to an even gloomier prediction. Conversely, most African economies are increasingly recording impressive growth rates in GDP and in other yardsticks.
One sore point of convergence in the Euro-Africa recession and growth dichotomy, however, is the Franc Zone. That is, those former French colonies still under the economic protection of France as evidenced by their use of the CFA franc as a unifying currency. While the rest of sub-Saharan African countries have in recent times recorded between 5 – 11% growth rates, the CFA franc zone has lagged behind at 2 – 3% and even less.
The CFA originally meant Colonies Francais d'Afrique or French Colonies of Africa and as the name implies was the currency imposed upon France's colonies at the end of WWII. Several years after Independence, the name CFA has remained and only seemingly amended to now mean Communaute Financiere Africaine, or the African Financial Community.
In practical terms, and apart from the mere exchange of the wordings of the letters C and F, not much has changed in the operating system of the CFA franc. From creation until present times, the CFA franc exchange rate was fixed and pegged to the French Franc, until France pledged allegiance to the European Union. France immediately transferred the loyalty of her franc zone protectorates by pegging the fixed exchange rate of the CFA franc to the Euro.
The reason for the creation of the CFA in 1945 remains the motive behind its enthronement in French West and Central Africa till date. WWII had bastardized the French economy leaving the French franc seriously devalued.
The French Treasury came up with the idea that it would make sound economic sense to create a separate currency for its colonies. A currency that will be of a higher value than the valueless French franc will yield much returns to French exports of manufactures to the colonies, and increase the profits accruable to the numerous French companies operating in the colonies. Couching this far-from-altruistic action in the usual colonial humanitarian rhetoric, Rene Pleven, French Finance Minister announced that "in a show of her generosity and selflessness, metropolitan France, wishing not to impose on her far-away daughters the consequences of her own poverty, is setting different exchange rates for their currency."
Over the decades that followed, the CFA franc was variously unilaterally devalued by France, the latest being in 1994. With the switch of allegiance to the Euro in 1998, the CFA franc now became intertwined with the ups and downs of the Euro currency.
France continues to gain overwhelmingly from the continued existence of the CFA franc. French companies still make-up the greatest share of the private sector of the franc zones, and are awarded most public contracts. The CFA fixed exchange rate, pegged to the Euro and overvalued, makes it possible for these French companies to be shielded from the Euro depreciation. As the CFA franc is overvalued, franc zone countries are at best incapacitated in their ability to build home grown industries to compete effectively with their French counterparts. This is made worse by the fact that the French Treasury mandates all countries using the CFA franc to remit 50% of their foreign exchange reserves to France.
When viewed from the lenses of the prevailing international monetary conventions, the continued pegging of the CFA franc fixed exchange rate to the Euro smacks of double standards. The United States has consistently chided China for pegging its currency to the dollar, declaring it a practice that destabilizes the global trading arrangement. The United States has however ignored France and the EU's pegging of the CFA franc fixed exchange rate to the Euro.
With its December 2011 front cover "Africa Rising," The Economist retracted its May 2000 cover story, "Africa, the Hopeless Continent." The revered international magazine came rather late, to recognize and extol the growth of businesses, investment opportunities and a conducive transactional climate in Africa. But the magazine forgot or ignored the fact that almost the whole franc zone has remained stagnant and exempt from this surprising and celebrated turn in Africa's economic situation. The CFA franc domination of French West and Central Africa has all but ostracized the countries involved from the increasing intra-African trade and economic buoyancy.
Apart from the grave and debilitating social-psychological effect of continued dependence on one's former and current exploiter for economic sustenance, the seemingly intractable Euro zone crises has made the franc zone a misnomer amidst sub-Saharan Africa's exponential progress.
For the fourteen CFA franc zone countries to record success like the rest of Africa, they must resolve to collectively take a decisive action against one of the major sources of their continued economic backwardness, the CFA franc. But that would almost amount to handing the franc zone a gun to hunt in a forest filled with lions or choose starvation instead.
France is feared in the CFA zone. Severe and deadly covert manipulations aside, France holds enormous political influence over its former territories and has made it clear in the past that it would employ whatever means possible to maintain the status quo.
But in the face of starvation, the franc zone must realize that death must come one way or the other and it is only wise to die hunting for food than to die avoiding death. What the zone needs is enormous political will, the kind exercised by President Kagame of Rwanda when he booted France out, changed the official language from French to English and joined the Commonwealth. This kind of political will calls for radical actions on the part of the franc zone, specifically, a coup against the CFA by the issuance. Make no mistake about it; France will fight like a wounded lion.
The franc zone is its last hope in terms of economic returns and exploitation. But there seems to be no easy way out for the franc zone, they must unite and fight to take back their currency, their future and their lives.
Chika Ezeanya is the author of Before We Set Sail www.beforewesetsail.com Some of her articles can be found on www.chikaforafrica.com
Dr . Osuji and Netters on the ThreadThe idea is not plucked from thin air to romance idealism. Europe has it.This provision is in the African Union Constitutive Act. Currently, the CEMAC ( 6 Central African Countries) has a common passport. Someone mentioned and I concur, we need strong and viable social, cultural, political and economic institutions to actualize the provisions.Hopefully, some of you may SAVE THE DATE NOV 9-10 for the African Union Diaspora Summit. This question would be central.Regards,MsJoe EvelynIn a message dated 8/4/2012 6:05:57 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, oyeniyib@gmail.com writes:thank Professor Afolayan for his intervention. John Lonsdale's assertion that perhaps Africa's ingenious contribution to world development is the ability to be governed admirably well and without the instrumentality of a state is obviously lost on Dr. Osuji.
Sometimes what appears simple may not necessarily make sense. Balkanizing Africa into ethnic-states is a clear example. Gadhaffi, at one time, romanticized with the idea of a United State of Africa. It was clear to everyone that his intentions were not totally altruistic. His experiment with Egypt and later Morocco showed clearly how practically impossible a proposition such as this could be. Many times, people get justifiably carried away by the sheer size of the United States of America and the amount of its internal cohesion and therefore propose similar structure for Africa.
The peoples, their histories, their cultures, etc. are totally different. Over and above this, i do not know anywhere in the world where such works.
Undoubtedly, African leaders should stop this colonial-bashing and take full responsibility for their ills. Like in medical practice, you need to know a patient's medical history before we can administer any cure. Without a full understanding of Africa's medical history, we will keep treating symptoms and not the ailment.
>>>>>
Oyeniyi, Bukola Adeyemi
Institute for History,
Universiteit Leiden,
The Netherlands.On Aug 4, 2012 8:07 PM, <shina73_1999@yahoo.com> wrote:--
It is a valid point to repudiate what we can call colonialism bashing by African leaders who have failed to see through their own complicity in the postcolonial predicament befalling most African states.
It is however a different thing if that repudiation flows from wrong premises, and suggested direction Africa ought to take is based on simplistic recommendations.
Dr. Osuji argued, for instance, that:
"Many African countries were stateless and did not even have any kind of political organization to run anything; [if colonialism had not intervened,]they would be rural peasants running around in the African equatorial forests",
I see here a serious lack of historical sense. That postcolonial African societies lack "any kind of political organisation to run anything' is pure nonsense! Except Dr. Osuji is conflating statelessness with lack of political organisation. Of course, the state in its modern sense was nonexistent, yet there were several manifestations of political organisations.
And then comes the classic and well-worn colonial argument:
" Expressing gratitude to Europeans for their good deeds for Africa is not one of Africans known traits; their known habit is to abuse those who tried to help them get into the modern world".
It doesn't serve any purpose here to rehearse the debate about the supposed benefits or burdens of colonialism in Africa. But then, the tone and trajectory of Dr. Osuji's analysis suggests, positively on the one hand, that African leaders and intellectuals ought to abandon the colonialism-destroyed-us argument and address their own complicity. However, he destroyed the argument, on the other hand, by suggesting that we begin to grovel over the supposed gift of modernity that colonialism gave Africa. I am angry with arguments like these.
First, while it is true that the colonialism argument has become stale a long time ago, this does not in any way obviate the epochal character of that historical event in Africa. Historical analysis will do well to balance it with the failure of leadership in Africa's postcolonial predicament.
Second, while it is again true that colonialism accelerated Africa's entry into modernity, isn't it obvious that such an accelerated advance lacked internal local moderation, and that it was calibrated with the colonial vision solely in mind? Furthermore, that acceleration brought a lot of tragic consequences in its wake, not least of which is what Mazrui calls "the [persistent] tension between old resilient cultures and new imported structures" which underlies most of Africa's current impasse.
Thus, "expressing gratitude to Europeans for their good deeds..." sound colonialistic to me.
And finally, the suggestion of balkanising Africa along ethnic boundaries is simply too hilarious to comprehend. I fail to see how that will resolve Africa's situation. Dr. Osuji is surely unaware of the paradox of nationalism: that the more an ethnic group seeks fulfillment in statehood, the more it opens itself up to more nationalistic agitations from sub-national groups. Giving each ethnic group its own state is not only logistically insurmountable (given the number of possible groups that would demand a state), it is a proposal that is far from being pragmatic. African leaders could not be blamed for accepting the colonial configuration of the geography of Africa; it makes no pragmatic sense to challenge it. This same pragmatism also came to play in the choice of a lingua franca for postcolonial African societies.
Sometimes, what separates the simple from the simplistic is a very tenuous line.
Adeshina Afolayan
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
From: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com>Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 18:25:51 +0100To: usaafricadialogue<USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comSubject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Fw: [NIgerianWorldForum] AFRICA SHOULD HAVE OPEN BORDERS [1 Attachment]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ata omom
Date: Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 6:19 PM
Subject: Fw: [NIgerianWorldForum] AFRICA SHOULD HAVE OPEN BORDERS [1 Attachment]
To: "nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com>
--[Attachment(s) from ata omom included below]Peace,Please see the attachment. While it addresses the African Diaspora it may be useful for the Motherland. African people everywherer must break free of the European's matrix.Ata Omom
I think Doc Osuji has made a valid point. The only snag I can see is how to 'organize' a group of people like the Fulanis who are everywhere from Senegal to Kenya down to the Central African Republic.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTNFrom: Ozodi Osuji <ozodiosuji@yahoo.ca>Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 07:49:27 -0700 (PDT)To: naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com<naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com<nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com>; naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com<naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com>ReplyTo: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.comSubject: [NIgerianWorldForum] AFRICA SHOULD HAVE OPEN BORDERSAFRICANS SHOULD HAVE OPEN BORDERSOzodi OsujiWhen you are around Africans their talk is almost always filled with what the colonial masters did to wrong them; everything is always the fault of the colonel masters. Even when African leaders kill their people they blame their former colonial masters for their mayhem. It is neocolonialism this, neocolonialism that.Talk is cheap so the brothers talk away and blame away but seldom take responsibility for their actions. It is action that is difficult and counts.So far Africans are missing in action; they do not translate their talk of how Africans are angels before white men corrupted them, such as made them to sell their people to Arabs and white men, into action. We are told that but for the white man Africans are perfect human beings.Why don't Africans show the world their angelic nature by just opening their borders and have any African who so wants it to go visit, work and live in any African country of his choice? Let all Africans be free to travel and work in all black African countries without going through the trouble of having passports and visas. Make travel within Africa easy. That way Africans feel a part of one continent.I doubt that Africans would do this. Their specialty is not to do the right thing but to amuse themselves with the delusion of how they are perfect people compared to white people by always blaming the white man for all the wrongs in their continent.If Africans are really a better breed of humanity, better than white folks they should show the world so by beginning to treat all Africans as one, such as have open borders.Instead, they cling to the boundaries given to them by their white colonial masters while desecrating the same colonial masters.Without the colonial masters most African countries as they currently are would not even exist. Many African countries were stateless and did not even have any kind of political organization to run anything; they would be rural peasants running around in the African equatorial forests.But now that they have been given the opportunity to live in an organized nation state instead of appreciating the gift they were given by the colonial masters they bad mouth those who made it possible for them to have nation states.Expressing gratitude to Europeans for their good deeds for Africa is not one of Africans known traits; their known habit is to abuse those who tried to help them get into the modern world.Verbally abusing the former colonial masters is all that Africa's so-called intellectuals know how to do. Where there are obvious problems in their nation states, such as the colonial masters clustering of different ethnic groups in one nation hence creating ethnic conflicts, they do not attempt to correct them. Africans will merely talk about the problem and go on and on how the white man lumped different ethnic groups into each African country hence cause them problems but solve that problem they would not even attempt to do.The solution to Africa's multi ethnic composition is very simple. Recreate the nation states of Africa. Have each ethnic group a state and have it in control of its domestic economy and then have a central government that is in charge of the military and foreign affairs.Nigeria, for example, can be reshuffled with an Igbo state, Yoruba state, Edo state, Ijaw state, Efik state, Urhobo state, Tivi state, Hausa State, Bornu state and a few others (the country would not have more than fifteen states). What is done in Nigeria is done in all African countries (the incessant wars in the Congo would stop if each ethnic Congolese group is made a state in charge of its economy).Each state should govern itself and develop at its pace and compete with others. The national government should be left to provide national security and coordinate the nation's various groups.And after reorganizing their internal countries Africans should then form regional nations, such as West African federation (with each ethnic group a state in it and a central government), an East African nation, a South African nation and a central African nation.Eventually, those four groups would work towards an Africa federation where each ethnic group is a state and a federal government is established to coordinate the activities of the five hundred or so anticipated states in Africa Federation.All Africa by now should have developed one currency to make trade in the continent simpler. But folks would not do these things that must be done if Africa is to move forward.Instead, all Africans do is talk about what their former colonial masters did wrong to them, but do anything to correct the perceived wrong they would not do. Africans are talkers and not doers; Africans are complainers but not problem solvers.Let Africa show the world that it is capable of doing the right thing instead of merely complain about the supposed wrong done to it by non-Africans by opening its borders so that all Africans can visit, work and settle in any African country of their choice without having passports and visas. Let Africans begin here and then work their way to the inevitable restructuring of Africa along the line briefly described above.The time for complaining is over; it is now time for action. Actually, the rest of the world is no longer listening to Africans perpetual bitching about what others did wrong to them; the rest of the world is now interested in what Africans do to themselves.So far the world see misgovernance in Africa and now want to see good governance in Africa.Ozodi OsujiAugust 2, 2012
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