Of Tino Oldani

Source: Italy Today
A rather singular political demonstration will be held in Rome towards mid-September. In fact, only young Africans will take to the streets, who have long emigrated to Italy and other European countries, who will sit in protest in front of the French embassy, in Piazza Farnese, to contest the African policy of Emmanuel Macron's France. Mohamed Konare will lead them, originally from the Ivory Coast, who defines himself as a "pan-African activist" and founded a political movement that, to use a current term, we could define it as sovereignist. The goal, as he himself states in a long interview on the web (Byoblu), is to explain to Europeans the colonial methods with which France continues to command and plunder in Africa well 14 States, once its colonies, have become independent over the years 60, but only on paper.
The French yoke on these countries, Konare argues, it is above all economic and monetary, and it is designed in such a way as to guarantee Paris an iron control of their currency, as well as an exclusive monopoly on the rich materials in which they abound (oro, uranium, petrolium, gas, cacao, coffee), with a double result: enrich France and its business elites on the one hand, with an immeasurable transfer of wealth (circa 500 billions of dollars a year, according to some estimates); on the other side. impoverish indigenous peoples to the point of poverty, who are thus forced to flee due to hunger towards Italy and Europe, in search of fortune.
To this systematic exploitation of France, says Konare, the time has come to say enough: «We will demonstrate in front of all the French embassies in Europe and beyond, with an ambitious goal, today almost utopian, to achieve the creation of the United States of Africa, where i 14 States, who are still under the French yoke, become truly sovereign, free to use their natural resources for the development of local economies, and not to increasingly enrich Macron's parasitic France and the puppet governments she installed in Africa".
The pivot around which the entire French control system revolves 14 African countries is the colonial franc, said Frank Cfa, currency that France imposed on its colonies in 1945, immediately after the Bretton Woods agreement, which regulated the monetary system after the Second World War. Originally the acronym CFA stood for "French Colonies of Africa", but in the sixties, following the recognition of the independence of the French colonies decided by Charles De Gaulle, its meaning has changed: «African Financial Community».
A purely formal recognition of the end of the colonial regime, as the CFA franc has retained all the iron and jugular constraints it had on local economies from the beginning. We're talking about 14 States of the sub-Saharan area and Central Africa, with a population of approx 160 million units, for which the official currency is the CFA franc, minted and printed in France, country that has established all its characteristics and holds a monopoly on it. Here is their list: Cameroon, First, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
The first constraint of the CFA franc consists in the obligation for i 14 Countries that use it to deposit the 50% of their monetary reserves at the French Treasury. In practice, when one of the 14 Franc countries CFA exports to a country other than France, and collect dollars or euros, has the obligation to transfer the 50% of this collection at the Bank of France. Originally the quota to be transferred to France was equal to 100% of the collection, then she went down to the 65% (reform of 1973, after the end of the colonies), finally to 50% dal 2005. As, for example, if Cameroon, subject to explicit French permission, exports ready-made clothes to the United States worth 50 thousand dollars, must transfer it 25 thousand to the French Central Bank. A system from which not even a penny escapes, as the monetary agreements on the CFA franc require that there be representatives of the French State, with the right of veto, both on the boards of directors and supervisory boards of financial institutions 14 former colonies.
Thanks to this transfer of monetary wealth, France manages the 50% of foreign currencies 14 former colonies, investing them massively in government bonds issued by its own Treasury, thanks to which it has been able to finance generous public spending for decades, often unaware of the Maastricht constraints. E Konare, in the web interview, remember that when Angela Merkel asked the various French governments to deposit the 50% of the reserves of 14 former colonies at the ECB, instead of at the French Central Bank, the answer has always been a firm no.
Among the numerous constraints imposed by the CFA franc agreements, there is also the "first right" for France to buy any natural resources discovered in its former colonies. Hence Paris' control over raw materials of enormous strategic value: uranium, oro, petrolium, gas, coffee, cacao. Only after an explicit «French non-interest», permission to look for another buyer is triggered. But be careful: the largest economic assets of all 14 former colonies are in the hands of the French who have long settled in Africa, becoming billionaires in spades (on everyone, Vincent Bolloré and Martin Bouygues). So much so that Konare finds it right to say that «Africans live in countries owned by the French. While to the Africans, Macron's France leaves only crumbs. And often not even those: only misery".
From this widespread poverty, supports the pan-African activist, the waves of migration towards Europe originate. «A trip that I am the first to advise against», says Konare. «Italy does not have enough work for its young people, it is unthinkable that he would find it for African ones. This is why Matteo Salvini was right to close the ports. Young Africans must do more in their countries to demand an end to colonialism and French theft, and build the United States of Africa, a federation of independent and sovereign states. A utopia that can become reality".