Françafrique: A Relic of Colonialism

The notion of Europeans colonizing Africa dates back to the Age of Exploration, when the people of the European continent began to explore the world. In fact, there was once a time when Europeans ruled almost all of Africa. But of course, this did not last forever, and European rule in Africa collapsed shortly after WW2, due to a variety of socioeconomic factors. After the Second World War, all of the major European nations involved began falling apart and had to be supported by either the United States or the Soviet Union. Both countries enforced decolonization on the nations of Europe, forcing them to give self governance to almost all of their colonies. Europe complied, though not out of a sudden change of heart, but because they had no other choice. France, however, managed to retain significant influence over West Africa through diplomatic efforts and negotiations. For better or for worse, France maintained major economic and political control over the affairs of West Africa and would continue to use the region for her own interests for years to come. 

French Presence in Africa can be traced back to the 1600’s. During this time period, if a European power wanted to trade with Eastern Asia, it had to send its traders all the way around Africa. The journey was long and arduous, so countries like France, Portugal, and Britain established places for their ships to stop and resupply along the West African coast. All of these colonies were expanded during the Scramble for Africa in the late 1800’s.The Scramble for Africa being when countries like France and England raced each other to take the most land in Africa After World War One, France took some of Germany’s colonies in West Africa, bringing about the height of French control in Africa. Then, during World War II, France's West African colonies played an important role. In 1940, Germany conquered all of the French homeland but some of the African colonies refused to submit to the Germans and became known as Free France. They continued to fight Germany until France was liberated in 1944. 

France would have to liberate its colonies because of American and Soviet pressure. However Even without this pressure it is unlikely France would have held onto these colonies. This is why in 1960, French president Charles de Gaule liberated France's remaining colonies. Though France relinquished control of her territories officially, Charles de Gaule  made sure that France would still dominate in this region through several policies. First, he practically forced the territories to join the ‘French Community’ by threatening the withdrawal of economic aid and stability to those who refused to comply. Charles de Gaule also established the Franc Zone; this made it so that all of the new countries would use the Franc instead of any local currency. The United States was not just blindly pretending that this was not happening, however they did not do much to stop it. The United States turned a blind eye to these policies because the French presence in the region was a stabilizing force, and the more stable an area was, the less likely it would be to fall to a communist revolution. During the height of the Cold War, America was willing to sacrifice some of its ideals to prevent the spread of communism.

West Africa was not the only place that was ruled by France's colonial empire, but it is the only place where the Franc zone exists and where France has influence today. This is because of a series of colonial revolts all across the weakened empire. The key locations where this happened were in Algeria and French Southeastern Asia. The Algeirians fought a war of independence from 1954 to 1959. It was a brutal guerilla war that centered around the city of Algiers. France secured Algiers but the fighting was so costly to the French that they did not wish to continue the conflict and in 1949 Charles de Gaulle gave full independence to the Algierians. At the same time Southeastern Asian nationalists had taken an important French garrison and the French withdrew from the area leading to the independence of Laos Cambodia and Vietnam. Because of these revolts those regions gained full independence and are not part of France's system in West Africa.

Today France still has much influence in West Africa. There are many French military installations in the region, and France sometimes even controls its politics by backing candidates most beneficial to them. Most of the countries in the region are forced to make huge deposits of their foreign currency reserves into the French treasury, in return for financial aid that is usually worth less than the deposits. France tries to keep the region stable and under its thumb, for example, when Guinea (the only country to vote no on the referendum to cooperate with France) attempted to issue its own currency, France performed huge amounts of sabotage in the new country, including production of counterfeits of the new currency to destabilize and ruin its value. In countries that cooperated with France, lower inflation rates were seen in comparison to other African countries and the region is more stable than most of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, since those in control of the currency do not have to deal with its effects on West Africa, the region's early economic growth quickly stagnated and it is one of the poorest areas in the world. The combined GDP of the Franc zone is around 179.7 billion USD compared to France itself which has a GDP of around 3 Trillion USD. Politically in these countries if you want to gain or to keep power you must be on good terms with France which sometimes leads to the governments of these countries not acting out of their own best interests, but in the interest of France.

There is a chance for these African countries to gain more independence from France. In 2019, current French president Emmanuel Macron announced some coming reforms to the Franc zone. These reforms included these countries switching from the CFA Franc to a new currency and the removal of the French seat at the West African Central Bank. This new currency will still be tied to the Euro which is controlled largely by France so these reforms may be just to silence critics and not actually in the interest of giving full sovereignty to the nations involved.

Françafrique is the last bastion of true colonialism in the world. It is a major reason why West Africa is so far behind the rest of the world. It could be argued that the stability and aid brought by Fraçafrique is worth more than the economic and political toll it takes on West Africa however it seems to be more in France's interest. This system is arguably more beneficial to France today than direct ownership of its colonies was 100 years ago because France does not have the burden of having to police and govern these regions itself. Minor reforms may be the first steps down the path of full independence for these countries but more likely these reforms will do little but protect the French diplomatically.

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