<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<header>
<h1 class="entry-title">14 African Countries Forced by France to Pay
Colonial Tax For the Benefits of Slavery and Colonization</h1>
<div class="byline author vcard">By: <a
href="http://www.siliconafrica.com/author/admin/" rel="author"
class="fn">Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN</a></div>
<div class="underautoher"><time class="updated"
datetime="2014-01-28T15:41:43+00:00" pubdate="">Tuesday, January 28th,
2014 at 3:41 pm.<br>
<small><small><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/">http://www.siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/</a></b></small></small><br>
</time></div>
</header>
<h3>Did you know many African countries continue to pay colonial tax to
France since their independence till today!</h3>
<p>When Sékou Touré of Guinea decided in 1958 to get out of french
colonial empire, and opted for the country independence, the french
colonial elite in Paris got so furious, and in a historic act of fury
the french administration in Guinea destroyed everything in the country
which represented what they called the benefits from french
colonization.</p>
<p>Three thousand French left the country, taking all their property
and destroying anything that which could not be moved: schools,
nurseries, public administration buildings were crumbled; cars, books,
medicine, research institute instruments, tractors were crushed and
sabotaged; horses, cows in the farms were killed, and food in
warehouses were burned or poisoned.</p>
<p>The purpose of this outrageous act was to send a clear message to
all other colonies that t<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">he
consequences for rejecting France would be very high.</span></p>
<p>Slowly fear spread trough the african elite, and none after the
Guinea events ever found the courage to follow the example of Sékou
Touré, whose slogan was <strong>“We prefer freedom in poverty to
opulence in slavery.”</strong></p>
<figure><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvanus_Olympio">Sylvanus
Olympio</a>, the first president of the Republic of Togo, a tiny
country in west Africa, found a middle ground solution with the French.
<p>He didn’t want his country to continue to be a french dominion,
therefore he refused to sign the colonisation continuation pact <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle">De Gaule</a> proposed,
but agree to pay an annual debt to France for the so called benefits
Togo got from french colonization.</p>
<p><strong>It was the only conditions for the French not to destroy the
country before leaving.</strong> However, the amount estimated by
France was so big that the reimbursement of the so called “colonial
debt” was close to 40% of the country budget in 1963.</p>
<p>The financial situation of the newly independent Togo was very
unstable, so in order to get out the situation, Olympio decided to get
out the french colonial money FCFA (the franc for french african
colonies), and issue the country own currency.</p>
<p>On January 13, 1963, three days after he started printing his
country own currency, a squad of illiterate soldiers backed by France
killed the first elected president of newly independent Africa. Olympio
was killed by an ex French Foreign Legionnaire army sergeant called <a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1483018/Gnassingbe-Eyadema.html">Etienne
Gnassingbe</a> who supposedly received a bounty of $612 from the local
French embassy for the hit man job.</p>
<p>Olympio’s dream was to build an independent and self-sufficient and
self-reliant country. But the French didn’t like the idea.</p>
<p>On June 30, 1962, <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modibo_Ke%C3%AFta">Modiba Keita</a> ,
the first president of the Republic of Mali, decided to withdraw from
the french colonial currency FCFA which was imposed on 12 newly
independent African countries. For the Malian president, who was
leaning more to a socialist economy, it was clear that colonisation
continuation pact with France was a trap, a burden for the country
development.</p>
<p>On November 19, 1968, like, Olympio, Keita will be the victim of a
coup carried out by another ex French Foreign legionnaire, the
Lieutenant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moussa_Traor%C3%A9">Moussa
Traoré</a>.</p>
<p><strong>In fact during that turbulent period of African fighting to
liberate themselves from European colonization, France would repeatedly
use many ex <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion">Foreign
legionnaires</a> to carry out coups against elected presidents:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>- On January 1st, 1966, <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-B%C3%A9del_Bokassa">Jean-Bédel
Bokassa</a>, an ex french foreign legionnaire, carried a coup against <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dacko">David Dacko</a>, the
first President of the Central African Republic.</li>
<li>- On January 3, 1966, <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Yam%C3%A9ogo">Maurice
Yaméogo</a>, the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now
called Burkina Faso, was victim of a coup carried by <a
href="http://www.siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/Aboubacar%20Sangoul%C3%A9%20Lamizana">Aboubacar
Sangoulé Lamizana</a>, an ex French legionnaire who fought with french
troops in Indonesia and Algeria against these countries independence.</li>
<li>- on 26 October 1972, <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathieu_K%C3%A9r%C3%A9kou">Mathieu
Kérékou</a> who was a security guard to President <a title="Hubert Maga"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Maga">Hubert Maga</a>, the
first President of the Republic of Benin, carried a coup against the
president, after <span style="text-decoration: underline;">he attended
French military schools from 1968 to 1970</span>.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>In fact, during the last 50 years, a total of 67 coups
happened in 26 countries in Africa, 16 of those countries are french
ex-colonies, which means 61% of the coups happened in Francophone
Africa.</strong></p>
<p>Number of <a
href="http://afriqueindependance.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/coups-detat-en-afrique-le-role-toxique-de-la-france/">Coups
in Africa</a> by country</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="435">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" valign="top" width="222"><strong>Ex French
colonies </strong></td>
<td colspan="2" valign="top" width="213"><strong>Other African
countries</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="180"><strong>Country </strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="125"><strong>Number of coup</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="180"><strong>Country</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="125"><strong>number of coup</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="163">Togo</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Egypte</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Tunisia</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Libye</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Cote d’Ivoire</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Equatorial Guinea</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Madagascar</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Guinea Bissau</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59">2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="163">Rwanda</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Liberia</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59">2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="163">Algeria</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Nigeria</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>3</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="163">Congo – RDC</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Ethiopia</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>3</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="163">Mali</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Ouganda</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>4</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="163">Guinea Conakry</td>
<td valign="top" width="59">2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="154">Soudan</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>5</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163"><strong>SUB-TOTAL 1</strong></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>13</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Congo</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>3</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Tchad</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>3</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Burundi</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>4</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Central Africa</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>4</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Niger</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>4</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Mauritania</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>4</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Burkina Faso</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>5</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163">Comores</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>5</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="163"><strong></strong><strong>SUB</strong>-TOTAL 2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>32</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><br>
</td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="163"><strong>TOTAL (1 + 2)</strong></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="59"><strong>45</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="154"><strong>TOTAL</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="59"><strong>22</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>As these numbers demonstrate, France is quite desperate but active
to keep a strong hold on his colonies what ever the cost, no matter
what.</p>
<p>In March 2008, former French President <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Chirac">Jacques Chirac</a>
said:</p>
<p><strong>“Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a
third [world] power”</strong></p>
<p>Chirac’s predecessor <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterand">François
Mitterand</a> already prophesied in 1957 that:</p>
<p><strong> ”Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st
century”</strong></p>
<p>At this very moment I’m writing this article, 14 african
countries are obliged by France, trough a colonial pact, to put 85% of
their foreign reserve into France central bank under French minister of
Finance control. Until now, 2014, Togo and about 13 other african
countries still have to pay colonial debt to France. African leaders
who refuse are killed or victim of coup. Those who obey are supported
and rewarded by France with lavish lifestyle while their people endure
extreme poverty, and desperation.</p>
<p>It’s such an evil system even denounced by the European Union, but
France is not ready to move from that<strong> colonial system which
puts about 500 billions dollars from Africa to its treasury year in
year out.</strong></p>
<p>We often accuse African leaders of corruption and serving western
nations interests instead, but there is a clear explanation for that
behavior. They behave so because they are afraid the be killed or
victim of a coup. They want a powerful nation to back them in case of
aggression or trouble. But, contrary to a friendly nation protection,
the western protection is often offered in exchange of these leaders
renouncing to serve their own people or nations’ interests.</p>
<p><strong>African leaders would work in the interest of their people
if they were not constantly stalked and bullied by colonial countries.</strong></p>
<p>In 1958, scared about the consequence of choosing independence from
France, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9opold_Senghor">Leopold
Sédar Senghor</a> declared: “The choice of the Senegalese people is
independence; they want it to take place only in friendship with
France, not in dispute.”</p>
<p>From then on France accepted only an “independence on paper” for his
colonies, but signed binding “Cooperation Accords”, detailing the
nature of their relations with France, in particular ties to France
colonial currency (the Franc), France educational system, military and
commercial preferences.</p>
<p>Below are the 11 main components of the Colonisation continuation
pact since 1950s:</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#1. Colonial Debt for the benefits of France colonization</h3>
<p>The newly “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure
built by France in the country during colonization.</p>
<p>I still have to find out the complete details about the amounts, the
evaluation of the colonial benefits and the terms of payment imposed on
the african countries, but we are working on that (help us with info).</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#2. Automatic confiscation of national reserves</h3>
<p>The African countries should deposit their national monetary
reserves into France Central bank.</p>
<p>France has been holding the national reserves of fourteen african
countries since 1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast,
Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad,
Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.</p>
<p>“The monetary policy governing such a diverse aggregation of
countries is uncomplicated because it is, in fact, operated by the
French Treasury, without reference to the central fiscal authorities of
any of the WAEMU or the CEMAC. Under the terms of the agreement which
set up these banks and the CFA the Central Bank of each African country
is obliged to keep at least 65% of its foreign exchange reserves in an “<em>operations
account</em>” held at the French Treasury, as well as another 20% to
cover financial liabilities.</p>
<p>The CFA central banks also impose a cap on credit extended to each
member country equivalent to 20% of that country’s public revenue in
the preceding year. Even though the BEAC and the BCEAO have an
overdraft facility with the French Treasury, the drawdowns on those
overdraft facilities are subject to the consent of the French Treasury.
The final say is that of the French Treasury which has invested the
foreign reserves of the African countries in its own name on the Paris
Bourse.</p>
<p>In short, more than 80% of the foreign reserves of these African
countries are deposited in the “<em>operations accounts</em>”
controlled by the French Treasury. The two CFA banks are African in
name, but have no monetary policies of their own. The countries
themselves do not know, nor are they told, how much of the pool of
foreign reserves held by the French Treasury belongs to them as a group
or individually.</p>
<p>The earnings of the investment of these funds in the French Treasury
pool are supposed to be added to the pool but no accounting is given to
either the banks or the countries of the details of any such changes.
The limited group of high officials in the French Treasury who have
knowledge of the amounts in the “<em>operations accounts</em>”, where
these funds are invested; whether there is a profit on these
investments; are prohibited from disclosing any of this information to
the CFA banks or the central banks of the African states .” Wrote <a
href="http://www.ocnus.net">Dr. Gary K. Busch</a></p>
<p>It’s now estimated that France is holding close to 500 billions
African countries money in its treasury, and would do anything to fight
anyone who want to shed a light on this dark side of the old empire.</p>
<p><strong>The African countries don’t have access to that money. </strong></p>
<p>France allows them to access only 15% of the money in any given
year. If they need more than that, they have to borrow the extra money
from their own 65% from the French Treasury at commercial rates.</p>
<p>To make things more tragic, France impose a cap on the amount of
money the countries could borrow from the reserve. The cap is fixed at
20% of their public revenue in the preceding year. If the countries
need to borrow more than 20% of their own money, France has a veto.</p>
<p>Former French President <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Chirac">Jacques Chirac</a> recently
spoke about the African nations money in France banks. Here is a video
of him speaking about the french exploitation scheme. He is speaking
in French, but here is a short excerpt transcript: “We have to be
honest, and acknowledge that a big part of the money in our banks come
precisely from the exploitation of the African continent.”</p>
<h3>#3. Right of first refusal on any raw or natural resource
discovered in the country</h3>
<p>France has the first right to buy any natural resources found in the
land of its ex-colonies. It’s only after France would say, “I’m not
interested”, that the African countries are allowed to seek other
partners.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#4. Priority to French interests and companies in public
procurement and public biding</h3>
<p>In the award of government contracts, French companies must be
considered first, and only after that these countries could look
elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the african countries can obtain better
value for money elsewhere.</p>
<p>As consequence, in many of the french ex-colonies, all the majors
economical assets of the countries are in the hand of french
expatriates. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, french companies own and
control all the major utilities – water, electricity, telephone,
transport, ports and major banks. The same in commerce, construction,
and agriculture.</p>
<p>In the end, as I’ve written in a previous article, <a
href="http://www.siliconafrica.com/africans-live-on-a-continent-onwed-by-europeans/">Africans
now Live On A Continent Owned by Europeans!</a></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#5. Exclusive right to supply military equipment and Train the
country military officers</h3>
<p>Through a sophisticated scheme of scholarships, grants, and “Defense
Agreements” attached to the Colonial Pact, the africans should send
their senior military officers for training in France or French
ran-training facilities.</p>
<p>The situation on the continent now is that France has trained
hundreds, even thousands of traitors and nourish them. They are dormant
when they are not needed, and activated when needed for a coup or any
other purpose!</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#6. Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene military
in the country to defend its interests</h3>
<p>Under something called “Defence Agreements” attached to the Colonial
Pact, France had the legal right to intervene militarily in the African
countries, and also to station troops permanently in bases and military
facilities in those<br>
countries, run entirely by the French.</p>
<p>French military bases in Africa</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.siliconafrica.com/wp-content/themes/directorypress/thumbs//French-military-bases-in-africa.png"><img
class="alignnone" alt="French-military-bases-in-africa"
src="cid:part1.02090209.03040807@freedomarchives.org"></a></p>
</figure>
<p>When President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Gbagbo">Laurent
Gbagbo</a> of Côte d’Ivoire tried to end the French exploitation of the
country, France organized a coup. During the long process to oust
Gbagbo, France tanks, helicopter gunships and Special Forces intervened
directly in the conflit, fired on civilians and killed many.</p>
<p>To add insult to injury, France estimated that the French business
community had lost several millions of dollars when in the rush to
leave Abidjan in 2006 the French Army massacred 65 unarmed civilians
and wounded 1,200 others.</p>
<p>After France succeeded the coup, and transferred power to <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alassane_Ouattara">Alassane Outtara</a>,
France requested Ouattara government to pay compensation to French
business community for the losses during the civil war.</p>
<p>Indeed the Ouattara government paid them twice what they said they
had lost in leaving.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#7. Obligation to make French the official language of the country
and the language for education</h3>
<p><em>Oui, Monsieur. Vous devez parlez français, la langue de Molière!</em></p>
<p>A French language and culture dissemination organization has been
created called “Francophonie” with several satellites and affiliates
organizations supervised by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.</p>
<p>As demonstrated in <a
href="http://www.siliconafrica.com/following-rwanda-senegal-to-replace-french-by-english-to-develop-the-country-faster/">this
article</a>, if French is the only language you speak, you’d have
access to less than 4% of humanity knowledge and ideas. That’s very
limiting.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#8. Obligation to use France colonial money FCFA</h3>
<p>That’s the real milk cow for France, but it’s such an evil system
even denounced by the European Union, but France is not ready to move
from that colonial system which puts about 500 billions dollars from
Africa to its treasury.</p>
<p>During the introduction of Euro currency in Europe, other european
countries discovered the french exploitation scheme. Many, specially
the nordic countries, were appalled and suggested France get rid of the
system, but unsuccessfully.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#9. Obligation to send France annual balance and reserve report.</h3>
<p>Without the report, no money.</p>
<p>Anyway the secretary of the Central banks of the ex-colonies, and
the secretary of the bi-annual meeting of the Ministers of Finance of
the ex-colonies is carried out by France Central bank / Treasury.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#10. Renonciation to enter into military alliance with any other
country unless authorized by France</h3>
<p>African countries in general are the ones with will less regional
military alliances. Most of the countries have only military alliances
with their ex-colonisers! (funny, but you can’t do better!).</p>
<p>In the case France ex-colonies, France forbid them to seek other
military alliance except the one it offered them.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>#11. Obligation to ally with France in situation of war or global
crisis</h3>
<p>Over one <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8344170.stm">million
africans soldiers</a> fought for the defeat of nazism and fascism
during the second world war.</p>
<p>Their contribution is often ignored or minimized, but when you think
that it took only 6 weeks for Germany to defeat France in 1940, France
knows that Africans could be useful for fighting for la “Grandeur de la
France” in the future.</p>
<p><strong>There is something almost psychopathic in the relation of
France with Africa. </strong></p>
<p>First, France is severely addicted to looting and exploitation of
Africa since the time of slavery. Then there is this complete lack of
creativity and imagination of french elite to think beyond the past and
tradition.</p>
<p>Finally, France has 2 institutions which are completely frozen into
the past, inhabited by paranoid and psychopath “haut fonctionnaires”
who spread fear of apocalypse if France would change, and whose
ideological reference still comes from the 19th century romanticism:
they are the Minister of Finance and Budget of France and the Minister
of Foreign affairs of France.</p>
<p>These 2 institutions are not only a threat to Africa, but to the
French themselves.</p>
<p><strong>It’s up to us as African to free ourselves, without asking
for permission, because I still <span
style="text-decoration: underline;">can’t</span> understand for
example how 450 french soldiers in Côte d’Ivoire could control a
population of 20 millions people!? </strong></p>
<p>People first reaction when they learn about the french colonial tax
is often a question: “Until when?”</p>
<p>For historical comparison, France made <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_debt_of_Haiti">Haiti</a>
to pay the modern equivalent of $21 billion from 1804 till 1947 (almost
one century and half) for the losses caused to french slave traders by
the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_debt_of_Haiti">abolition
of slavery</a> and the liberation of the Haitian slaves.</p>
<p>African countries are paying the colonial tax only for the last 50
years, so I think one century of payment might be left!</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>