14 African Countries Who Still Pay Colonial Tax To France
Are you aware that many African countries still pay colonial tax to France till today? One would say that Africa is still being exploited even till date. It brings us to the conclusion that the Europeans may not want us to be greater than they are after all. An article by Mawuna Remarque Koutonin, peace activist and editor of SiliconAfrica.com discussed this act. The writer drew attention to the bad influence of French on the African continent and how they are still subjected to pay colonial tax for the benefits of slavery. And what’s more worrying is that French as of yet flourishes and prospers in this action and earns around over 400 billion dollars from a continent that is about to be as developed as theirs. Well, after going through this article, you will not help but say that Europeans still manipulate our dear motherland.
African Countries Who Still Pay Colonial Tax To France
Guinea used to be a French colonial possession in West Africa until 1958 during the fall of French Fourth Republic as a result of its political instability and its failures in handling colonies, particularly Indochina and Algeria. And the country’s independence came as a result of Sékou Touré of Guinea’s bright decision to pull out of the French colonial empire that year and pick out independence for Guinea. That notwithstanding, a lot of harm was done due to the decision which Sékou Touré took as the French colonial members in Paris didn’t find his decision pleasing. Out of sheer displeasure as great as others in the past, the French administration in Guinea wrecked anything and everything in the country that is a symbol of what they dubbed the “benefits from French colonization”.
According to Mawuna Remarque Koutonin, the author of the article, more than two thousand French relocated from the country, collecting virtually everything they had put in place and tearing down immovable things including schools, nurseries, public offices. They ruined even the administrative buildings, cars, books, medicine, research institute instruments, tractors and they slaughtered the horses, cows in the farms. The foods were not left out of the mass destruction as they both poisoned and set food stored in warehouses on fire. Though the reason for the shockingly bad action of theirs was not stated bluntly, the underlying truth hidden in their action is basically to let other French colonies know that declining France is synonymous to facing dire and severe consequences.
Read Also: These Three African Countries Shocked The World
As expected, the atmosphere of fear was created making the superior selected groups of Africa gradually afraid and just the way bad odour can spread easily, the scare spread to other African countries. As a result of that, nobody was willing to copy Sékou Touré’s action, whose catchphrase was “We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”
The first President of the Republic of Togo, a tropical, sub-Saharan nation in West Africa which greatly depends on farming, named Sylvanus Olympio discovered a middle ground answer to the puzzle with the French elite because there were not many solutions available. He wants his country to get out of the French dominion list, and hence turned the signing of the Colonization Continuation Pact proposed by De Gaule. But alternatively opted to pay a yearly debt to France, and shockingly or funnily enough, the annual debt is for the benefits Togo got from French colonization. Isn’t that exploitative? Since that was just about the only better way to keep the wrath and anger of Europeans at bay particularly their massive destruction before moving out of the country, a country which solely depends on farming opted to enrich a nation that was and is still way richer than them from their seemingly tiny pockets of farming. This no doubt reflects the use of cork of a bottle in fetching water into the ocean in an attempt to get it filled up.
More so, the amount that was approximated by France as the so-called colonial debt was so huge that it was almost 40% of the country’s budget in 1963. Meanwhile, the financial situation of the just independent Togo was something short of stable.
For that reason, Olympio opted for a change in the money they were using, all in a bid to build a nation that will not depend on others for its growth. He then dumped the French colonial money FCFA (the Franc for French African Colonies) and launched the country’s own currency which got him dead barely three days after he began the printing of country’s own currency. His death was caused by a small group of ignorant and uneducated soldiers supported by France whose only aspiration was to waste the life of Olympio; the first elected president of the newly independent Togo.
In the same vein, Keita Modiba who was the first president of the Republic of Mali also on June 30th, 1962 decided to pull out from the French Colonial Currency FCFA that was forced on 12 the newly independent African countries as at then.
The Malian President knew that if he allowed his country to continue being a French colony, it will not only be a liability or load but also an inevitable trap for Mali. Sadly, there was another striking coup on November 19, 1968, which destabilized his plans and sent him to prison in the northern Malian town of Kidal. The coup was backed by another member of Foreign French legion whose name is Lieutenant Moussa Traoré. Keita Modiba who devoted all his life for African unity was thrown into prison and the most annoying aspect of everything is that after he was transferred back to the capital Bamako in February 1977 in what was asserted to be Government action towards national reconciliation in preparation for him to be set free, Modibo Keïta died, still a prisoner, on May 16, 1977.
Olympio, who is today known as the first President to be assassinated during a military coup in Africa and his wife were asleep when many members of the military broke into their house, waking them from their sleep. Before dawn, Olympio’s body was found by the U.S. Ambassador Leon B. Poullada three feet from the door to the U.S. Embassy. This sent shocking and frightening messages to other African leaders who became even more shocked and afraid of being caught in the same kind of predicament.
According to reports, he was killed on January 13, 1963, by an ex-member of French Foreign Legion army, a sergeant referred to as Etienne Gnassingbe who claimed to have personally fired the shot that took the life of Olympio while Olympio tried to escape and he supposedly had received a reward of $612 from the local French embassy for the killing job. The ideas of Olympio which was enough to make his nation independent, a self-sufficient and self-reliant country cost him his life. After all, he isn’t supposed to build an independent nation when French hasn’t granted them the go-ahead order to do so.
To substantiate the facts mentioned above, throughout the past 50 years, 67 coups took place in 26 countries in Africa and 16 of those countries in Africa were colonized by France. This, therefore, shows that nearly 61% of the Coups that took place happened in the French-speaking countries of Africa. Don’t you think France is surely desperate by the way it strives tirelessly to maintain a strong contact with her colonies no matter what it would cost? Of course, you are right to say yes.
The ex-French President Jacques Chirac in March 2008 stated that without Africa, France will smoothly go down in the rank of a third (world) power. Also, the former President of France François Mitterand who left the seat for Chirac also said that if there was nothing like Africa, France would not have had any history in the 21st century.
Did you know that 14 countries in Africa are by colonial pact required to pay nearly 85% of their foreign reserve to the France central bank under the of control French Finance minister even as we speak? It is really disturbing that Togo and other 13 countries are required to pay a colonial debt to France. For the stubborn African leaders who declined this offer, they were either killed or overthrown through a coup, but the docile ones were backed and recompensed with extravagant lifestyles while their subjects embraced abject poverty and distress.
Read: African Empires That Have Been So Easily Forgotten
My anger gets even worse knowing they are not ready to condemn or cancel the act as these countries have already paid in 2014. It seems our leaders are really afraid of being killed and therefore need a powerful nation to support them. In case you are wondering why most leaders send their revenue abroad, it is because they are oppressed by colonial countries. Is that so hard to believe?
Check Out the content of the ‘Almighty’ Colonization Continuation Pact:
- Colonial Debt for the benefit of France colonization:
The newly “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure built by France in the country during colonization.
- Automatic confiscation of National reserves:
This simply means that France holds the National reserve of fourteen African countries which are; Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Hence, they pay their national monetary reserves into the central bank of France.
- The right of first refusal on any raw or natural resource discovered in the country:
- Priority to French interests and companies in public procurement and public bidding:
- The exclusive right to supply Military equipment and Train the country’s Military officers:
- Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene in the country to defend its interests:
- The obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language for education:
- The obligation to use France colonial money FCFA:
- The obligation to send France annual balance and reserve report:
- Renunciation to enter into military alliance with any other country unless authorized by France
- Obligation to ally with France in situation of war or global crisis
Isn’t that looting and a very obvious exploitation? To me, looking at the content of the said document signed by our leaders you could say that some African countries are still slaves to French colonials. But the truth remains that we are the only ones who can really help ourselves. We may wait as we might, and help will never come our way. Unless we stand up for Africa, we might pay this debt forever.
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Here is another one from Al Jazeera written by a white man for your satisfaction...
Torpedoing Africa, and then complaining about 'migration'
European countries are still shaping the lives of millions of Africans, determining both their present and future.
by
Lorenzo Kamel
18 Aug 2018 GMT+3
Out of the 67 coups in 26 African countries in the last 50 years,
61 percent took place in former French colonies.
Fifty percent of the monetary reserves of 14 African countries are still today under full French control: none of them has any control over its macroeconomic and monetary policy. France makes billions of euros from Africa annually under the form of "reserves", and lend part of the same money to its owners on
market rates.
These few numbers hide one major truth: many European countries, France first and foremost, are still today shaping the lives of millions of Africans - three quarters of whom live on less than two dollars a day - determining both their present and future. They take the best out of Africa, while largely ignoring, or complaining about, much of the rest (noteworthy: Muslims represent about eight percent of the total French population and yet, between 40 percent and
70 percent of the population of France's prisons are estimated to be Muslims, mainly originate from African countries).
How are the European Union (EU) and many European citizens responding to this reality? They tend to focus on the "final rings of the chain" (including NGOs, "hotspots", or how to "
divert irregular migration"), meaning that they focus on "
the migration crisis plaguing Europe" without addressing some of the main structural conditions behind these phenomena.
Post-colonial "possessions"
A number of agreements signed in recent years by the EU in different parts of Africa have been largely
detrimental for local populations, not least because they have exposed
weak economies to
unfair competition, adopted "
divide and conquer" tactics when negotiating with African countries, and
reduced trade between African nations.
On top of this, these agreements are often signed by countries that are still heavily dependent on external powers. A case in point is represented by the accord - the covers goods and development cooperation - reached by the EU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on February 24, 2014.
Almost all countries that are part of both ECOWAS and UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) - including Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, and Senegal - are still today de facto "post-colonial possessions".
The Central Bank of each of these African countries is in fact compelled to maintain at least 50 percent (it was 65 percent until 2005) of its foreign exchange reserves in an "
operations account" controlled by the French Treasury. Moreover, each Central Bank is required to maintain a foreign exchange cover of at least of
20 percent of its liabilities.
It should also be mentioned that still today - despite the efforts made by ECOWAS to create a new common currency (ECO) for West African states - the CFA Francs, which are in reality two different currencies both guaranteed by the French Treasury, are the official currencies in 14 West and Central African countries.
CFA Francs, contrary to the dollar or euro, cannot be converted into any other currency. This means that all these countries are excluded from the international foreign exchange market (FOREX), the largest and most liquid market for options of any kind in the world.
It could be claimed that the countries that operate with these currencies might freely leave the arrangement at any time. In truth, dozens of African leaders, from Silvanus Olympio in Togo to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, have tried in recent decades to replace these tools of monetary and financial control with a new common African currency. Almost all of them - with the
possible exception of Malian President Modibo Keïta (1915-77) - have been killed or overthrown the very moment in which their attempts were close to succeeding.
Tackling structural interests
For many centuries, Europe contributed to intercontinental migration more than any other continent. On the other hand, migrants from other continents
rarely chose Europe as a destination.
Much is changed during the 20th century, and yet, still in 1990, migrants from West Africa, where many of the current migratory waves directed to Europe stem from, represented only the
0.005 percent of the annual population growth in Europe, which at the time was 0.184 percent.
The upsurge of net migration from Africa from the late 1990s, and more specifically the upswing of migratory traffic across Sahara from West to North Africa, is the result of an unprecedented "perfect storm", meaning the (never so) well organised exploitation of Africa - mainly at the hands of single European countries and companies, with the connivance of corrupted local leaderships - the increasing destabilisation of the entire region (to which
European weapons are also contributing much), and the epochal challenges posed by the combination of climate change and demographic growth (according to the United Nations, more than half of global population growth between 2015 and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa).
Instead of tackling these epochal challenges and acknowledging that
87 percent of world refugees are hosted in low and middle-income countries, a number of European politicians and millions of average citizens have chosen the "easiest path": they are invoking a Europe-wide alliance against "mass immigration", or, more precisely,
quoting Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, "a League of the Leagues of Europe, bringing together all the free and sovereign movements that want to defend their people and their borders".
"Europe", in truth, is not defending itself, but "attacking". It is doing so in a more sophisticated way than in the past, while receiving only limited "side effects". In this sense, concerns about "migrations" cannot but generate a positive outcome for European countries and citizens: in the medium-long term, they will be compelled to reconsider their attitudes and policies. And this process starts with broadening awareness on these issues.
Indeed, complaining about "migrants" - not dissimilarly from focusing on NGOs, or on the "financial"
cost of the "migration crisis" for European countries - is a self-assuring shortcut that speaks at the gut of millions of disillusioned European citizens. Challenging and tackling the structural interests of (mainly) European businessmen, companies and governments - like Africans are doing through initiatives like the "West Africa leaks" - would be much riskier: this is why it won't easily happen.
Fostering local agency
The "West Africa leaks"
investigation, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) last May 22, has confirmed that real change will ultimately come from African citizens themselves. The end of the exploitation of their countries passes, in fact, primarily through their structured and organised efforts.
Through the analysis of 27.5 million leaked documents, the "West Africa leaks" shed further light on how government officials, arms merchants and corporations
have syphoned off millions of dollars from some of the poorest West African states through offshore tax havens. The latter is, to a large extent, linked to European and American companies and businessmen.
The result of the investigation, the largest-ever collaboration of journalists from West Africa, is particularly meaningful if considering that the region (West Africa) accounts for more than one-third of the about $50bn that leave Africa each year illegally.
There is still much to inquire about the role played in these processes by some of Africa's most powerful politicians and business leaders, although the
OPL 245 case in Nigeria, from where one in every five Africans is from, might be considered as a poster child for understanding how the system works, and how it should be tackled.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
