Author: Chofor Che.

We reproduce Chofor Che’s article “FRANCE AND FRANCOPHONE AFRICA: A MARRIAGE OF INCONVEBIENCE” here:

“France colonized a great part of Africa prior to independence in the 1960s. Former colonies of France include the North African states of Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. In West Africa, former French colonies include Ivory Coast, Benin, Mali, Niger, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Burkina Faso. In the Central African region and French Equatorial Africa, former French colonies comprise of Chad, French Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Congo Brazzaville and São Tomé and Príncipe. In French Africa, former French colonies include Madagascar, Mauritius Seychelles, Comoros and Réunion. Some analysts, like Placide Moussounda of Nouvelle Afrique, argue that Francophone Africa has benefitted very little from France since independence.

I am one who has always viewed the on-going relationship between France and Africa as suspicious and detrimental to the continent’s growth and development. My position is fortified by a statement made in 2007 by former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy during his presidential campaign, where he said “France does not need Africa.” During President Sarkozy’s term of office, Francophone Africans were repatriated in their numbers from France. Despite such humiliation and expulsion of Francophone Africans from France, French presence in Africa remains firm.

Another area where Francophone Africa continues to suffer from the marriage with France is the imposition of the franc CFA, a currency utilized by former French colonies in the Central African region. CFA stands for Financial Cooperation in Central Africa (Coopération financière en Afrique centrale). The CFA franc represents two currencies utilized in Africa which are guaranteed by the French treasury. The two CFA franc currencies are the Central African CFA franc and the West African CFA franc. Although theoretically separate, the two CFA franc currencies are effectively interchangeable.

According to former French minister of finance, René Pleven, the CFA franc was created on 26 December 1945, in French colonies to spare them the strong devaluation, thereby facilitating exports to France. Today the creation of the CFA has grossly impoverished Francophone Africa. This currency is regulated by three central banks in Francophone Africa, Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale, or the Bank of the Central African States (BEAC) located in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, or the Central Bank of the West African States (BCEAO ) located in Dakar, Senegal and the Comoros Bank in Comoros. French citizens who constitute part of the board of directors of the above mentioned banks have veto rights on decisions of these banks, which means decisions concerning the CFA, are influenced enormously by the French. The structuring and composition of the central banks makes it possible for a colossal flow of finances from Africa to the French public treasury. This means that very poor countries in Africa finance France. There happens to be over 8 000 billion of CFA from Africa stocked in France. This means over 40 million Africans are deprived of their revenue. This can be connoted as monetary slavery which is the outcome of the marriage of inconvenience between France and Francophone Africa.

Time for a new Africa has come. This new Africa needs to get rid of the shackles of colonialism which continue to plunge the continent down the drains of poverty. Africans need to nurture the spirit of free markets and stop relying on aid especially from France. Maybe it is time for Francophone Africa, to have its own currency as other currencies like the South African rand. Allowing impoverished African states to continuously finance the French treasury is not the way to go.

Additionally, Francophone Africa can curb the numerous trade barriers inhibiting commerce amongst them. Francophone Africa can ease trade with Anglophone Africa and benefit from a fruitful relationship which would benefit the continent as a whole, rather than relying on a marriage of inconvenience which has done nothing but plunge Francophone Africa and the entire continent into poverty.”

SOURCE: www.africanliberty.org/france-and-francophone-africa-a-marriage-of-inconvenience-chofor-che/. May 1, 2013

About Author: Chofor Che is an associate of AfricanLiberty.org and an integral part of the Voice of Liberty initiative. He is also a Doctoral Law candidate at the University of the Western Cape and blogs at choforche.wordpress.com/.








SOME SOURCE MATERIALS BY AND ABOUT KWAME NKRUMAH 5

201) King Leopold Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, And Heroism In Colonial Africa (Adam Hochschild)

202) The Scramble For Africa: White Man's Conquest Of The Dark Continent From 1876-1912 (Thomas Pakenham)

203) The Position Of The Chief In The Modern Political System Of Ashanti (K.A. Busia)

204) A Study Of Contemporary Ghana (Volumes 1 & 2; Edited by W. Birmingham Et Al.)

205) Economic Independence In A New African State: Ghana 1956-1965 (J.D. Esseks)

205) The Wretched Of The Earth (Frantz Fanon)

206) Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fate Of Human Societies (Jared M. Diamond)

207) The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide And The Colonial Roots Of Nazism (David Olusago & Casper W. Erichsen)

208) Britain's Black Debt: Reparations For Slavery And Native Genocide (Hilary Beckles)

209) Reparations To Africa (Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann)

210) Blood And Soil: A World History Of Genocide And Extermination From Sparta To Darfur (Ben Kiernan)

211) Colonial Genocide And Reparations Claims In The 21st Century (Jeremy Sarkin)

212) Africa On The Move (Sekou Toure)

213) The State In Africa: The Politics Of The Belly (Jean-Francois Bayert)

214) Confessions Of A Hitman (John Perkins)

215) The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)

216) Criticism And Ideology: Second African Writers Conference Stockholm (Kirsten H. Petersen, Per Wastberg, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet)

217) Road To Ghana (Alfred Hutchinson)

218) Capital In The 21st Century (Thomas Picketty)

219) State Legitimacy And Development In Africa (Pierre Englebert)

220) The African Colonial State In Comparative Perspective (Crawford Young)

221) Germany: First Bid For Colonies, 1884-1885: A Move In Bismarck's European Policy (A.T.P Taylor)

222) Political Values And The Educated Class In Africa (Ali Mazrui)

223) Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experiences Of European Blacks, Africans And African Americans During The Nazi Era (Clarence Lusane)

224) A New Paradigm Of The African State (Mueni wa Muiu & Guy Martin)

225) Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, And Africa, 1959-1976 (Piero Gleijeses)

226) Africa And The West: A Documentary History From The Slave Trade To Independence (William Worges, Nancy Clark, & Edward Alpers)

227) How Far We Slaves Have Come! South Africa And Cuba In Today's (Fidel Castro & Nelson Mandela)

228) Cuba And Angola: Fighting For Africa's Freedom And Our Own (Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, & Mary-Alice Waters)

229) Che Guevara Reader: Writings On Politics And Revolution (Che Guevara)

230) The Greatest Black Achievers In History (Sylvia Lovina Chidi)

231) Creating Political Order: The Party States Of West Africa (R.A. Zolberg)

232) The African Dream: The Diaries Of The Revolutionary War In The Congo (Aleida Guevara March Et Al)

233) Wall Street And The Rise Of Hitler (Anthony Sutton)

234) Wall Street And The Bolshevik Revolution (Anthony Sutton)

235) Western Technology And Soviet Economic Development (Three Volumes; 1917-1930; 1930-1945; 1945-1965; Anthony Sutton)

236) After Postcolonialism: Remapping Philippines-United States Confrontations (E. San Juan, Jr.)

237) Culture And Imperialism (Edward Said)

238) The Washington Connection And Third World Fascism (Noam Chomsky)

239) Imperialism: The Highest Stage Of Capitalism (Vladimir Lenin)

240) The Postcolonial Studies Reader (Edited by Bill Ashcroft Et. Al)

241) Neocolonialism And African Politics (Yolamu Barongo)

242) The Decolonization Of Africa (David Birmingham)

243) Neocolonial Identity And Counter-Consciousness (Retato Constantino)

244) U.S. Neocolonialism In Africa (Stuart J. Sebor)

245) Postcolonial Identity In Africa (Richard Werbner)

246) Legal Pluralism: An Introduction To Colonial And New-Colonial Laws (M.B. Hooker)

247) Globalization And The Colonial World (Ankie Hoogvelt)

248) Trohan Horse Of Neocolonialism (Nikolai Ermolov)

249) Schooling And Education In Africa: The Case Of Ghana (George Sefa Dei)

250) Pedagogy Of The Oppressed (Paulo Freire)

251) The Regime Change Of Kwame Nkrumah: Epic Heroism In Africa And The Diaspora (Ahmad Rahman)

252) The Non-Alignment Movement Is A Mighty Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Force Of Our Time (ll-Song Kim)

252) Education For Critical Consciousness (Paulo Freire)

253) W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 (David Levering Lewis)

254) Ghana: A Concise History From Pre-Colonial Times To The 20th Century (D.E.K. Amenumey)

255) Africana Studies: A Survey Of Africa And The African Diaspora (Mario Azevedo)

256) Pedagogy Of Freedom (Paulo Freire)

257) The Political Awakening Of Africa (Rupert Emerson & Martin Kilson)

258) Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism In Ghana (Janet B. Hess)

259) Encyclopedia Of The Developing World (Thomas M. Leonard)

260) African Political Leadership: Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius Nyerere (A.B. Assensoh)

261) Postcolonial Identity In Wole Soyinka (Mpalive-Hangson Msiska)

262) African Writers Talking (Dennis Duerden & Cosmo Pieterse)

263) Politicians And Soldiers In Ghana, 1966-1972 (Dennis Austin)

264) Press Freedom And Communication In Africa (Edited by William Jong-Ebot & Festus Eribo)

265) Ghana Under Military Rule, 1966-1969 (Robert Pinkney)

266) Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, And Postcolonialism (Biodun Jeyifo)

267) West Africans In Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism And Communism (Hakim Adi)

268) Ideological Education And Nationalism In Ghana Under Nkrumah And Busia (D.K. Agyemen)

269) Inside The OAU: Pan-Africanism In Practice (C.O.C Amate)

270) Terrorism Under Nkrumah: A Verdict By Akufo-Addo And Others (Raymond Osei)

271) Organizing African Unity (Jon Wornoff)

272) The Gold Coast And National Consciousness (S.R.B. Attoh Ahuma)

273) Political Parties And National Integration In Tropical Africa (Edited by James Coleman & Carl Rosberg)

274) Philosophers And Kings: Studies In Leadership (Dankwart A. Rosberg)

275) The African Union And Its Institutions (Edited by John Akokpari Et Al)

276) Ghana And The Promotion of Pan-Africanism And Regionalism (S.K.B. Asante)

277) Decolonization In Africa (John D. Hargreaves)

278) Pan-African Protest: West Africa And Italo-Ethiopian Crisis, 1934-41 (S.K.B. Asante)

279) Readings In African Political Thought (S.W. Rohio & Gideon-Cyrus Makau Mutiso)

280) Ghana: Evolution And Change In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries (A.A. Boahen)

281) The Position Of The Chief In The Modern Political System Of Ashanti (K.A. Busia)

282) Landmarks of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (David Busumtwi-Sam)

283) Pan-Africanism: The Struggle Against Imperialism And Neocolonialism: Documents Of The Sixth Pan-African Congress (Edited by Horace Campbell)

284) Ready For Revolution: The Life And Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)

285) John Mensah Sarbah, 1864-1910: His Life And Works (A. Crabbe)

286) Modernization In Ghana And The U.S.S.R (Robert E. Dowse)

287) Nkrumah And Ghana (K. Hadjor)

288) Political Economy Of British West Africa (J. Horton)

289) The Origins Of Modern African Thought (R.W. July)

290) African Contemporary Record: Annual Survey And Documents, 1976-1977 (Colin Legum)

291) The Organization Of African Unity And The Condo Crisis, 1964-1965 (C. Hoskyns)

292) West African States: Failure And Promise (A Study In Comparative Politics) (John Dunn)

293) Africans In Britain (David Killingray)

294) The African Colonial State In Comparative Perspective (Crawford Young)

295) Africa In Crisis: New Challenges And Possibilities (Edited by Tunde Zack-Williams)

296) Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique Of European Cultural Thought And Behavior (Marimba Ani)

297) African Universities And Western Tradition (Eric Ashby)

298) African Origin Of Civilization: Myth Or Reality (Cheikh Anta Diop)

299) Civilization Or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (Cheikh Anta Diop)

300) Precolonial Black Africa (Cheikh Anta Diop)

301) Black Africa: The Economic And Cultural Basis For A Federated State (Cheikh Anta Diop)

302) The Cultural Unity Of Black Africa (Cheikh Anta Diop)

303) Akyem Abuakwa And The Politics Of The Interwar Period In Ghana (A.B. Homes)

304) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication Of Ancient Greece 1785-85; Volume 1; Martin Bernal)

305) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Archeological And Documentary Evidence; Volume 2; Martin Bernal)

306) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Linguistic Evidence; Volume 3; Martin Bernal)

307) African Philosophy: The Phaoronic Period, 2780-330 B.C. (Theophile Obenga)

308) Stolen Legacy (George G.M. James)

309) Ghana’s First Republic, 1960-1966: The Pursuit Of The Political Kingdom (Trevor Jones)

310) The African Personality In America: An African-centered Framework (K.K.K Kambon)

311) Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome (Joy D. Leary)

312) The Debt: What America Owes Black America (Randall Robinson)

313) An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution To The Kidnapping Of A President (Randall Robinson)

314) Ethiopia Unbound: Studies In Race Emancipation (J.E. Casely-Hayford)

315) Encyclopedia Of The Harlem Renaissance (Sandra L. West & Aberjhans)

316) The Oxford Encyclopedia Of African Thought (Biodun Jeyifo & Abiola Irele)


317) Institutions And Ethnic Politics In Africa (Daniel N. Posner)

318) Staying Politics: Power And Performance In Asia And Africa (Edited by Donal C. O’Brien & Julia Strauss)

318) To Vote Or Not To Vote: The Merits And Limits Of Rational Choice (Andre Blais)

319) Ghana, 1957-1966: The Politics Of Institutional Dualism (Benjamin Amonoo)

320) The End Of The Earth (Robert D. Kaplan)

321) Economics And Elections: The Major Western Democracies (Michael S. Lewis-Beck)

332) Democratic Experiments In Africa: Regime Transitions In Comparative Perspective (Michael Bratton & Nicholas van de Wille)

332) Burkina Faso: Unsteady Statehood In West Africa (Pierre Englebert)

333) Youth And Employment In Africa: The Potential, The Problem, The Promise (The World Bank)

334) UN Millennium Development Library (Jeffrey Sachs The UN Millennium Project)

335) The End Of Politics (Jeffrey Sachs)

336) The Age Of Sustainable Development (Jeffrey Sachs)


337) The Future: Six Drivers Of Global Change (Al Gore)

338) African Americans And Political Participation: A Reference Handbook (Minion Morrison)

339) Becoming African Americans: Black Public Life In Harlem, 1919-1939 (Clare Corbould)

340) The Richard Wright Encyclopedia (Jerry Ward & Robert Butler)

341) African And American: West Africans In Post-Civil Rights America (Violet Showers & Marilyn Halter)

342) The Redemption Of Africa And Black Religion (St. Clair Drake)

343) Encyclopedia Of African American Education (Faustine Jones-Wilson Et Al.)

344) Encyclopedia Of African American History (Paul Finkelman)

345) Black World (Negro Digest) (A Johnson Publication)

346) Encyclopedia Of African-American Education (Two-volume set; Kofi Lomotey)

347) African American Lives (Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & Evelyn B. Higginbotham)

348) African People In The Global Village: An Introduction To Pan-African Studies (John Marah)

349) Paul Cuffe: Black America And The African Return (Sheldon Harris)

350) African Americans In Global Affairs: Contemporary Perspectives (Michael Clemons)

351) Silenced Rivers: The Ecology And Politics Of Large Dams (Patrick McCully)

352) The Volta Resettlement Experience (Robert Chambers)

353) Effects Of Volta Lake Resettlement In Ghana: A Reappraisal After 25 Years (Kofi Diaw)

354) The Environmental Impact Of A Large Tropical Reservoir (Peter Freeman)

355) Message To The People: The Course Of African Philosophy (Marcus Garvey)

356) Encyclopedia Of The African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, And Culture (Boyce Davies & Carole Elizabeth)

357) Autobiography Of Malcolm X (Malcolm X & Alex Haley)

378) Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention (Manning Marable)

379) The John Henrik Clarke Papers (The New York Library, Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture)

380) Educational Outlook Journal (University of Pennsylvania)

381) In My Father’s House: Africa In the Philosophy Of Culture (Kwame Anthony Appiah)


382) Kwame Nkrumah Of Ghana: His Formative Years And The Beginning Of His Political Career, 1935-1948 (A.B. Assensoh)

383) The Dissolution Of The Colonial Empires (Franz Ansprenger)

384) Reconstructing The Nation In Africa: The Politics Of Nationalism In Ghana (Michael Amoah)

385) Nationalism And African Intellectuals (Toyin Falola)


386) The New Ghana: The Birth Of A New Nation (Joseph G. Amamoo)

387) The Oxford Handbook Of Modern African History (Edited by Richard Reid & John Parker)


388) Writing And Colonialism In Northern Ghana: The Encounter Between The LoDagaa And ‘The World On Paper’ “Sean Hawkins)


389) The African Journalist (Kwame Nkrumah)


390) The African Journalist (Keith Nalumango)


391) British Imperialism: Innovation And Expansion (Two-volume Set: 1688-1914, 1914-1994; A.G. Hopkins & P.J. Cain)

We shall return…