Did You Know France Collects Over $500 Billion In Colonial Tax From Her Former African Colonies?
October 12, 2020 2355
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The relationship
between France and Africa is simply parasitic. Firstly, since the time of
slavery, France has been seriously addicted to the plundering and oppression of
Africa.
Then there is the
French ruling elite's utter lack of sensitivity and innovation, the inability
to embrace a mental paradigm shift and break old hurtful practices.
The French
finance and budget minister, and the French minister of foreign affairs are two
institutions that won't grow, they are populated by delusional and
sadistic top officials who propagate the idea of catastrophe if these
practices were to improve.
Not only are
these two entities a threat to Africa but also to France itself. Isn’t it
alarming that France fined Haiti, a current-day equivalent of $21 billion from
1804 to 1947 for the losses caused by the abolition of slavery and the
emancipation of Haitian slaves?
History has it
that after Guinea Conakry's Sekou Toure initiated the rejection of France's
faux Independence, in 1958, the French government closed the country's home to
three thousand Frenchmen.
They were asked
to take all their belongings and all that was under French command in the
country with them and ruin all that could not be evacuated. Among the items
that were destroyed throughout the country were public administration houses,
important national records and plans, schools, nurseries, vehicles, books, and
medicines. Also affected by colossal damage, were instruments of research institutes,
farming tractors, roads, animals, and food.
In sympathy, and
as a consideration for this heinous act against the people of Guinea, then
Ghana's president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had to donate £10 million of
Ghana's economic reserve to aid Guinea so that the nation could survive this
chaos!
The objective of
this outrageous act was to send a strong message about the implications of the
refusal of France by all the other colonies.
The reality is
that the fear gradually seized the African leaders and after these
events, no other country ever got the nerve to follow Sékou Touré's
example, whose slogan was "We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in
slavery."
Sylvanus Olympio,
the first president of the Republic of Togo, a small nation in West Africa,
found an alternative that would appease the French: not trying to discontinue
French rule, he declined signing the colonial agreement suggested by
De Gaule, but offered to pay France a yearly debt for the so-called benefits
gained during the French occupation. This was France's condition for not
ruining the country before leaving.
Nevertheless,
France's estimated fee was so huge that the repayment of the so-called
"colonial debt" was almost 40% of the country's budget in 1963.
Consequently, the economic condition of the newly independent Togo was very fragile and in order
to overcome this situation, Olympio opted to forsake the monetary system
developed by colonial France the FCFA (franc of the French colonies of Africa)
and create the country's currency.
Three days after
he started printing the new notes on January 13, 1963, a group of mercenaries
seized and executed the first elected leader of independent Africa. Olympio was
murdered by an ex-French legionnaire, the army sergeant Etienne Gnassingbe who
received a bonus of 612 dollars from the French regional embassy for the accomplishment of his mission.
The vision of
Olympio was to build a country that was free and autonomous. But the proposal
did not match the desires of the French.
Modibo Keita, the
Republic of Mali's first president, like Olympio was also killed by
Lieutenant Moussa Traoré, another former French foreign affairs legionnaire in
November 19, 1968, for exiting the monetary system of CFAF on 30 June 1962. This
is to mention but a few of such executions.
No less
than 67 coups have taken place in 26 African countries over the past 50
years and 16 of these countries are former French colonies, indicating that 61
% of coups d'etat in Africa occurred in former French colonies.
Former French
President, Jacques Chirac, in March 2008, said: "Without
Africa, France will slide down into the rank of twenty-third power". In
1957, his predecessor, François Mitterrand also said “Without
Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century”, little wonder 14
African countries are compelled by France to place 85% of their reserves under
the management of the French Ministry of Finance through the colonial agreement
in the central bank of France.
The European
Union condemns such an unjust system, but France is not willing to let go of
this colonial system, which generates for them some 500 billion dollars in cash
from Africa annually.
We frequently
condemn African leaders for greed and for serving Western nations, but the
reason for this conduct is not farfetched. They do so because they fear
being assassinated or becoming the target of a coup. They also want an alliance with a powerful
nation in case of conflict or trouble. Unfortunately,
this protection comes with a cost.
Here are the 11
main elements of the colonization pact's continuity since the 1950s:
1. Automatic confiscation of national currencies.
African countries must deposit their national currency reserves at the
central bank in France.
CFA central banks also enforce a credit cap given to each member country which equals 20% of the country's public income over the previous year. Even if the BEAC and the BCEAO have a French Treasury overdraft facility, the French Treasury must consent to overdraft facilities. French treasury also invests African reserves on the Paris stock exchange and they do this in their name.
The proceeds from these French
Treasury funds ' investments are expected to be added to the foreign reserve
but there is no accounting conveyed to banks or countries nor the specifics of
these adjustments.
Dr. Gary K. Busch states that “Only a small group of senior French Treasury officials know the amounts in the trading accounts where these funds are invested; if there is a profit on these investments, they are prohibited from disclosing this information to the CFA banks or the central banks of the African states.”
France is estimated to control almost 500 billion African silver in its currency and this money is not available to African countries. France permits them to control only 15% of their money a year. If they need more, African countries will have to borrow 65% of their money deposited in the French Treasury and at commercial rates. Worst still, France puts a cap on the amount of money that countries can borrow from the fund. The limit is set at 20% of the previous year's public income.
2. The colonial debt that the newly
"free" nations have to pay for France's colonization infrastructure.
3. The compulsion to submit the
countries annual balance and reserve report to France, without which they
don't get any funds. Nevertheless, the secretariat of the central banks of the
ex-colonies and the secretariat of the bi-annual conference of ex-colonies
finance ministers are protected by the central bank/treasury of France.
5. Sole right to train nations military
officers and supply military equipment. Africans have to send their senior
training officers to France or to French military infrastructures under the
guise of scholarships, grants, and the defense agreements attached to the
colonial treaty. The situation on the continent is such that hundreds, perhaps
thousands of French loyalists have been raised by France. They are
inactive as long as they are irrelevant and triggered for a coup d’état or
other reasons when necessary.
7. Disapproval of joining a military alliance
with any other country unless officially approved by France. Many African countries only have
military alliances with their ex-colonizers!
8. France can pre-deploy and intervene militarily. Under the term, "Defense Agreements" which is a part of the colonial agreement, France has the right to pre-deploy forces and intervene militarily in the country to protect its interests.
9. The control of all the natural resources of the land of its former colonies.
France controls any mineral or raw
resource found in these nations. Only in the event of rejection are African
countries allowed to seek other partners.
10. France is given preference in public contracts
and public buildings. The biggest economic players are controlled by
French expatriates in most ex-French colonies. For instance, in Côte d'Ivoire,
French companies own and regulate all significant public services from water
supply to banks. It’s the same in commerce, building, and farming. French companies must be recognized in the
first place when awarding public contracts and only after that would foreign
markets be considered. It does not consider the fact that African countries
could get a better financial deal from other countries.
11. The compulsion to make French the
country's official and academic language. Note that if French is the only
language you understand, you would have access to less than 4 percent of
humanity's knowledge and ideas, which is very restricting.
For how long will
Africans wait before they terminate this alarming organized robbery and
rebranded slavery? It is high time we truly became independent!