Sanou Mbaye: Why French Africa is in no hurry to shed its Gallic ties

THIS month, Africa's Francophone countries will mark the 50th anniversary of their independence, and of the ties they maintain with France. But is there much to celebrate?

Even before Charles de Gaulle took office in 1958, he foresaw the wave of revolutionary nationalism that would soon sweep across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

As French president, he sought to circumvent that tide by proposing to the leaders of France's African colonies a negotiated settlement for independence.

To accept de Gaulle's offer, these leaders had to agree, among other things, to allow the stationing of French troops on their territory, provide France with a steady supply of raw materials at pre-determined prices, assume all colonial-era debts incurred by France, maintain the CFA franc as their common currency and grant the French Treasury veto authority over their sub-regional central banks.

De Gaulle got most of what he wanted, and granted independence.

Francophone Africa has been paying for independence ever since. French troops have repeatedly intervened in Chad, Gabon, Zaire, Central Africa, Togo and Cte d'Ivoire to prop up and protect complacent, corrupt, undemocratic and incompetent leaders, remove recalcitrant ones, or curb civil unrest. In Rwanda, France has yet to live down its perceived role in enabling the 1994 genocide.

On the monetary front, the CFA franc-zone's member countries dismantled the federal structure that united them during French occupation and erected trade barriers instead. The CFA franc issued by two sub-regional central banks (BCEAO and BEAC) are not interchangeable. As a result, regional trade and economic integration have been stifled.

Now with the bulk of their exports denominated in US dollars and their imports priced mainly in euros, chronic structural deficits have wrecked the franc-zone economies, and the prospect of a second devaluation looms larger by the day.

More appalling is the fact that France guarantees the CFA franc's free convertibility into hard currency, originally on the condition that all 15 franc-zone countries surrender 100 per cent of their foreign reserves to the French Treasury. The amount was reduced to 65 per cent, and then 50 per cent in 2005, but France still deducts its share directly from these countries' export earnings.

Unfortunately, West Africa's regional grouping, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), is not effective. With its establishment, the franc-zone countries created two sub-regional groupings, Waemu and Cemac, in a bid to curb British, American and Nigerian influence. As a result, West African countries are mostly missing out on Africa's current revival – and the prospect of a prolonged period of stagnation in the eurozone certainly won't help.

The unbalanced relationship between France and its former African colonies would beggar belief if the psychology of Africa's "liberators" 50 years ago were overlooked.

Senegal's first president, Lopold Sdar Senghor, was a strong believer in white supremacy who once wrote that "reason is Helennic; emotion is Negro".

Leon Mba, the first Gabonese president, was such a Francophile that he bequeathed his personal fortune to France in order to finance the construction of a hospital in Paris.

Similarly, the founder of Cte d'Ivoire, Flix Houphout-Boigny, coined the word "Franafrique" to underline the total osmosis between France and its former colonies. Houphout-Boigny's support for France's African policy led him to establish diplomatic ties with South Africa's apartheid regime and make his country a supply-transit route for the Biafra secessionists.

These leaders were unlikely ever to dispute France's diktat, and the same applies to their heirs. Indicted French child abductors were freed by Chad at France's request. In Mali, several suspected terrorists – members of a local branch of al-Qaeda – were set free in exchange for a lone French hostage. Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade once labelled the CFA franc a colonial relic – but that was when he was an opposition leader. Now he considers it the best currency in the world.

This economic and psychological status quo ensures that, after 50 years of independence, true emancipation for Franafrique will remain a distant prospect.

• Sanou Mbaye, a Senegalese economist, is a former member of the senior management team at the African Development Bank and the author of L'Afrique au secours de l'Afrique ("Africa to the Rescue of Africa").