Verisoph story dossier
France granted flag independence around 1960 but kept real control: the CFA franc that held fourteen countries' reserves in Paris, permanent military bases and interventions, propped-up presidents like Bongo and Bokassa, and the Elf oil and Niger uranium ties...
France granted flag independence around 1960 but kept real control: the CFA franc that held fourteen countries' reserves in Paris, permanent military bases and interventions, propped-up presidents like Bongo and Bokassa, and the Elf oil and Niger uranium ties. It is the textbook case of neocolonialism, now fraying as the Sahel expels French troops.
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France creates the franc of the French Colonies of Africa, the CFA franc, on the same day it ratifies the Bretton Woods accords. The new currency is set at a fixed rate to the French franc and issued under French control. It becomes the money used across most of French Africa and outlasts independence.
Felix Houphouet-Boigny becomes the first president of independent Ivory Coast and a pillar of France's African order. In 1955 he had coined the word Francafrique to praise close ties between France and Africa. The writer Francois-Xavier Verschave later turned the term against its makers, using it to name a system of hidden control.
As its African colonies become independent around 1960, France signs defence and cooperation accords that allow it to keep military bases and to intervene at a friendly government's request. Some clauses remain secret. The agreements turn formal independence into a security relationship still managed from Paris.
From an office at the Elysee Palace, Jacques Foccart manages France's relations with its former African colonies under de Gaulle and Pompidou. He builds a web of personal ties to client presidents, intelligence agents and business figures that operates outside normal diplomacy. His networks become the working machinery of Francafrique.
After independence the CFA is run through two central banks, the BCEAO in West Africa and the BEAC in Central Africa, but each keeps an operations account at the French Treasury. Member states are required to deposit a large share of their foreign reserves in Paris, and France holds seats on the boards that set monetary policy. The arrangement guarantees the fixed peg while placing key decisions partly in French hands.
Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of Togo, is shot dead in a coup led by soldiers including Gnassingbe Eyadema, who later admitted firing. Olympio had resisted French influence and pushed to leave the CFA franc. France's exact role in the killing is alleged by critics but has never been proven and remains disputed.
Omar Bongo takes power in oil-rich Gabon and rules for more than forty years until his death in 2009. He keeps close personal ties to French leaders across the political spectrum and to the state oil company Elf. Gabon becomes a model of the client relationship at the heart of Francafrique.
France's nuclear group, later known as Areva and then Orano, starts mining uranium at Arlit in northern Niger through the company Somair. The ore is shipped to France to fuel its growing fleet of nuclear power stations. For decades Niger supplies a major share of the uranium behind French electricity while remaining one of the poorest countries on earth.
Djibouti gains independence but France keeps a large garrison under a defence pact, its biggest permanent base on the continent. Along with sites in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Chad, it anchors a network of French forces that outlives the colonial era. The bases give Paris the reach to intervene quickly across the region.
Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who had crowned himself emperor in a lavish 1977 ceremony, is overthrown by French paratroopers in Operation Barracuda. France flies in his predecessor David Dacko to take power while Bokassa is abroad. The episode shows Paris installing and removing rulers at will.
President Thomas Sankara, a radical anti-imperialist who challenged France's role in Africa, is gunned down in a coup that brings Blaise Compaore to power. A Burkinabe court later convicted Compaore in absentia over the killing. Critics have long alleged French and regional involvement, a claim that remains contested.
France and the franc zone finance ministers cut the value of the CFA franc in half overnight, from 50 to 100 CFA per French franc. The decision, driven from Paris, doubled the local price of imports and hit household incomes across fourteen countries. It showed that a currency used by tens of millions of Africans could be reset by French policy.
French magistrates open an investigation that reveals the state oil company Elf Aquitaine as a tool of foreign policy and a source of secret money. Elf channeled funds to African leaders in Gabon, Congo and elsewhere and to French politicians. The case exposed how oil deals and political control were fused in Francafrique.
When France joins the euro, the CFA franc is pegged to the new currency at a fixed rate of about 656 CFA to one euro. The French Treasury continues to guarantee convertibility, so the anchor changes but the underlying arrangement does not. African members gain no vote in the eurozone that now backs their money.
A French investigation uncovers a network that sold hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons to Angola's government during its civil war in exchange for oil access. Those convicted at the 2008 trial included businessmen and figures tied to French political circles, among them a former president's son. The affair showed how French private interests, arms and African resources were traded together.
A Paris court convicts around thirty people, including former executives Loik Le Floch-Prigent and Alfred Sirven, in what was called the biggest corruption scandal in a European democracy since the war. The trial laid bare how Elf's money moved between African oil states and French power. It confirmed that the oil company had operated as an arm of the state.
After a disputed election, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refuses to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, whom foreign observers recognized as the winner. French Licorne troops and United Nations forces strike Gbagbo's positions, and he is captured. France's decisive role in removing a sitting president drew charges of continued interference.
France launches Operation Serval to stop jihadist fighters advancing on the Malian capital. French airstrikes and ground troops push the militants back from the towns of the north. The intervention is welcomed at first but marks the start of a long French military presence in the Sahel.
After long complaints that it earned little from its own resource, Niger presses Areva in tough talks to raise the state's share of uranium revenue. The dispute highlights how the mining contracts had long favored the French firm. Uranium from Niger remained central to France's nuclear energy even as the relationship soured.
France replaces Serval with Barkhane, a wider counter-insurgency mission covering Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. Several thousand troops operate from bases across the region, headquartered in Chad. Over the following years the mission grows unpopular as the violence keeps spreading.
French tycoon Vincent Bollore, whose group ran port and logistics concessions across French-speaking Africa, is charged in France over how his firm won contracts in Togo and Guinea. Investigators examined whether cut-price political campaign work helped secure the port deals in Lome and Conakry. The case pointed to how contracts were steered to French firms.
Senegalese economist Ndongo Samba Sylla and co-author Fanny Pigeaud publish a detailed critique arguing that the CFA franc constrains the monetary sovereignty of its members and serves French interests. Their book is later translated as Africa's Last Colonial Currency. Defenders reply that the peg brings low inflation and stability, so the balance of blame for the CFA's effects remains disputed.
Presidents Alassane Ouattara and Emmanuel Macron announce that the West African CFA franc will be renamed the eco. The reform ends the requirement to deposit half of foreign reserves in the French Treasury and removes French representatives from the BCEAO board. The euro peg and French guarantee remain, and the Central African CFA is left untouched.
After two coups the Malian junta turns to Russian mercenaries and demands that French troops leave. France completes the withdrawal of Barkhane from Mali, handing over its last base at Gao. The rupture ends nearly a decade of French military operations in the country.
Following coups in both countries, the new military governments order French forces to leave. France pulls out of Burkina Faso early in 2023 and, after the July coup in Niger, withdraws about 1,500 troops from Niamey by the end of the year. The expulsions close most of France's military footprint in the Sahel.