CFA'S END
A pan-African CFA activist is the face of rising anti-French sentiment in Francophone West Africa
By Clair MacDougall in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
After
four days in detention in Burkina Faso for “insulting the president and
other presidents,” Kémi Séba, the controversial Franco-Béninois
activist, who spearheaded a movement against the regional currency, the
CFA, was all set to arrive in Mali on Wednesday (Jan. 8) for
demonstrations demanding the exit of the French military.
Instead he posted video on his Instagram
account from Cotonou airport in Benin claiming he had been stopped from
boarding an Air Burkina flight to Bamako, Mali’s capital city.
And yet, Séba’s battle against the CFA and “Francafrique” is really just getting started.
While many welcomed last month’s news West
Africa’s CFA monetary union has agreed with France to rename its CFA
franc as the Eco and cut some of the financial links with Paris, there
are still plenty of doubters and plenty of concerns about one of the
messengers of change.
The fact it was French
president Emmanuel Macron, along with president of Côte d’Ivoire
Alassane Ouattara, who announced the end of the West African CFA seems
to only further convince Séba and his followers that France’s
“neo-colonialism” is alive and well.
“Macron shouldn’t be the one to say our CFA is finished,” said Hervé Ouattara, the head of the Anti-CFA Front in Burkina Faso.
“They are not respecting us.” The activist also accused both France and
Ivory Coast of “acting unilaterally” and overriding regional bodies
such as the Economic Community of West African States in its decision.
The CFA is a regional currency pegged to the euro
and used throughout 14 mainly Francophone countries in West and Central
Africa and dates back to the days of colonial rule, when CFA was
launched in 1945 as les Colonies Françaises de l’Afrique or (“French Colonies of Africa”). Even though it has since been renamed as Communauté Financière d’Afrique (“Financial
Community of Africa”) certain scholars and activists like Séba have
long argued France has used the currency to undermine national
sovereignty and control and manipulate African economies to its own
advantage.
The West African CFA is used in eight
countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger,
Senegal and Togo) while a separate Central African CFA is used in the
other six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic
of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon).
On Dec.
21, Macron and Ouattara announced plans for a new regional currency
called the Eco for West African users of the CFA. It remains unclear how
the new currency will be rolled out, however, news reports claim
reserves of the new currency will remain in West Africa at the Central
Bank of West African States (BCEAO). This would be a key change from the
CFA which operates under the requirement that half of its reserves are
kept in the French treasury, which has fueled suspicion of French
economic control.
Séba has since reinvented himself an anti-colonial and pan-Africanist leader through his group Pan-African Emergency (Urgences Panafricanistes in
French) that has thousands of followers on social media. In January
2017, Séba established the Anti-CFA Front that is active in Burkina
Faso, Mali, Niger, Benin and Cameroon and in Sénegal, where Séba was
expelled for burning a 5,000 CFA bill (equivalent to $9.20). The group has mobilized around the abolition of the CFA that Séba refers to as “colonial money.”
But as the security crisis in the Sahel worsens, Séba’s focus has also turned toward France’s military presence in the region. “Afrique libre ou la mort!” or “Free Africa or death!” Séba chanted to a lecture theatre packed with students at the University of Ouagadougou, just a few hours before his arrest.
Séba has accused France of fueling regional terrorism and called president of Burkina Faso Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of being a “passoire politique” or “political strainer” for France. A widely-circulated mobile phone video of the conference was posted on Séba’s YouTube channel.
Séba,
who has in recent years been arrested in three other West African
countries for comments he has made during political rallies, was
detained by Burkina Faso’s gendarmerie for four days before appearing in
court on Dec 26. He was found guilty and received a two-month suspended
prison sentence and a 200,000 CFA fine from the court, that could be
enforced if he comes back to Burkina Faso and “insults” the president or
other presidents again.
Outside the Palace of Justice in Ouagadougou, Séba, who wore a tight black shirt and a giant carving of the African around his neck, remained defiant.
“Nobody will be able to moderate our language,” he said.
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