by PRABHAT PATNAIK
FRANCOPHONE Africa was never fully decolonised. In the name of protecting French property located in its former colonies, France insisted on, and the former colonies agreed to, the stationing of French troops in those countries. This gave France immense opportunities to intervene in the politics of its former colonies. In addition, these countries were made to adopt a currency, the CFA franc, which had a fixed exchange rate vis-à-vis the French franc. And to maintain this fixed exchange rate, the monetary policy of these countries was controlled by the French central bank. Since monetary policy cannot be separated from economic policy in general, this basically meant that economic policy in these countries was largely controlled by France. This entire arrangement also survived the integration of France into the European Union system. The independence of these former French colonies therefore was always severely circumscribed; and attempts to break out of this situation by revolutionaries who happened to come to power in any of these countries were met with acts of neo-colonial ruthlessness perpetrated by France with American support against such recalcitrant governments.
Thomas Sankara, a revolutionary who came to power in Burkina Faso and who wanted to get French troops out of his country was killed in a coup, staged by one of his own party members but obviously at French instigation and with French support. The struggle against neo-colonialism in these countries however has continued, with the local armed forces often being the sector from which the leadership of such resistance is recruited. Captain Ibrahim Traore, a leader of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (PMSR) that was established in early 2022 in Burkina Faso, insisted on getting French troops out of his country after coming to power on September 30, 2022, and actually succeeded in doing so. What is more, he also put an end to the CFA franc arrangement that his country had been trapped in. Traore formed the Association of Sahel States (AES) along with two neighboring countries, Mali and Niger, both of whom had also been convulsed with the desire for genuine decolonization. French and American troops were forced to withdraw from Niger and a Pentagon drone station there was closed down. The AES thus began to emerge as a thorn in the flesh of imperialism in a region that is very rich in mineral resources
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