The French language and a CFA currency tying 14 countries to France’s treasury continue to have big effects.
After more than six decades, French troops completed their withdrawal from Chad
this week before a January 31 deadline, the latest blow to France’s
shrinking military hold in its former West and Central Africa
strongholds.
N’Djamena abruptly cut ties with Paris in December and ended a
military pact that saw 1,000 French soldiers stationed in the country.
The sprawling nation is a prime spot for monitoring and launching
missions against the swarm of armed groups operating in the troubled
Sahel region, but also for monitoring activities in neighbouring
war-wracked Libya.
That wind-down is part of a recent trend that has seen ex-French
colonies cut off or downgrade military and diplomatic ties with their
former ruler, due to resentment from perceived French interference in
their countries.
In military-led Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, some 4,000 French
soldiers have exited, while Russian troops have flooded in to help
battle armed groups.
Chad, Senegal and Ivory Coast have since followed suit.
“For these countries, it’s about sovereignty,” Francophone Africa
security analyst Beverly Ochieng with the Control Risks consultancy told
Al Jazeera.
“If you have a foreign force in your country, it means you are in
some way surrendering sovereignty, and these countries see it as freeing
themselves of that interference.”
Popular resentment against France has festered in “La Francafrique”
since colonial times but has now erupted. In the last decade, protesters
from Abidjan to Niamey have marched in the streets, blaming France for
everything from election interference to instability.
However, even as France’s military bases close up, analysts say Paris
continues to wield subtle but deep power. From the French language and a
common currency among former colonies to phone networks and baguettes,
the influence of France is visible and omnipresent in the everyday lives
of people across these countries, which could make a total divorce near
impossible.
French: ‘Number one language’
France’s biggest soft power lies in the reach of the French language.
Of the 300 million French speakers in the world by 2022, close to 50
percent lived in Africa, according to the Organisation of
French-Speaking Countries. There are more French speakers in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo than anywhere else besides France, for
example.
Across the continent, locals have over time adapted the rule-rigid
language to suit their needs. In Cameroon, where French and English are
official languages, mixed phrases like tu go où, which means where are
you going, are common.
However, across several Francophone countries, official
communication, such as public communiques, the news, or even lectures,
is delivered in standard French. In Mali, where the military government
demoted the French language to a non-official status in August, French
is still the working language many months later.
Recognising the power of the French language, President Emmanuel
Macron’s administration in 2018 launched a drive to offer French lessons
in most African cities. In a speech to students in Burkina Faso that
year, before the two countries fell out, Macron declared that French
would be the “number-one language in Africa … and maybe even the world”.
Already, the language is viewed favourably in English-speaking
countries like Nigeria where elite schools entice parents with the
promise that their children will learn French.
Senegal’s
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was voted into office in April
2024 on promises of delivering anti-establishment policies and reducing
ties with France, has, however, attempted to shake the hold of the
language.
His official speeches are delivered in both French and the dominant Wolof language.
Faye has also moved to set up a new agency that will rename streets and squares across the country to honour locals.
France’s centuries-long rule of the country was so encompassing that
streets, bridges, and squares were named after colonial officers, or
bear French words.
Scholars say such moves are crucial for a country like Senegal that
is eager to rebuild an identity independent of France. “It is part of a
process of decolonisation that is to contribute to regaining
self-respect and healing the trauma of colonialism,” Ferdinand De Jong, a
researcher at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, told
Al Jazeera.
CFA: Complicated common currency
Just as strong are the economic ties that have fastened France to its former colonies since before independence.
Mobile network providers, supermarket chain Auchan or nuclear firm
Orano are all French-owned businesses that are now part of the business
scene in several French-speaking nations. Although these companies have
increasingly been targeted in violent anti-French protests, there is no
sign that they plan to leave.
Then, there’s the common CFA currency zone. Created in December 1945
at a time when calls for independence were already mounting, the CFA
currency zone encompasses 14 West and Central African countries. It was
originally known as the “franc of the French colonies of Africa”,
betraying France’s original intentions with the currency. Today it is
known as the franc of the African Financial Community and is voluntary.
Only Guinea-Conakry and Mauritania left the zone upon independence.
Some see the currency as a strong stabiliser against inflation but
controversies abound over its terms: Countries must keep 50 percent of
their reserves in the French Treasury to keep the currency pegged to
France’s euro. Many scholars and African leaders note this limits the
CFA’s growth, and in turn, the economies of the countries using it.
Others have called it a neo-colonial tool of the French
In August 2015, former Chadian President Idris Deby, in an
independence anniversary speech, called for change: “We must have the
courage to say there is a cord preventing development in Africa that
must be severed,” Deby said.
However, no African leaders, including the military ones, have since left the zone.
In Senegal, President Faye promised during his election campaign to
ditch the CFA and cease working with Western monetary institutions like
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund but has done the
opposite.
“They have quietly let the CFA question die down,” Mahmoud Ba, a
professor of international relations at Cornell University in New York
told Al Jazeera, referring to Faye’s administration. “They have also
continued the very close working relationship between the state and the
IMF and World Bank, despite the strong criticism they had for these
institutions.”
Analysts say countries may fear France’s backlash: After Guinea voted
to leave the CFA zone in 1960, the French government launched a secret
mission, Operation Persil, to flood the country with the new Guinean
franc and engineer hyperinflation. Paris also planned to ship weapons to
start a local conflict, although its operation was intercepted.
Leaving the CFA zone and establishing a new local currency, at least
in West Africa, is also being complicated by a regional push in the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to form a common
currency to rival the European Union’s euro. That process has been
delayed several times, however, and some blame France for it: In 2019, a
day before ECOWAS countries were set to adopt the final terms for the
“eco” currency, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara – a staunch French
ally – announced that the CFA zone countries were set to adopt a new
currency. Its name? Also the “eco”. So far, neither currency has
emerged.
As countries continue to pivot from France, Paris too has begun
implementing a new Africa strategy launched in late 2024: There are
plans to permanently reduce troop presence in countries that have not
yet kicked out French forces, like Gabon, where there are still about
300 French soldiers.
Jean-Marie Bockel, President Macron’s special envoy to Africa, said
in May that France wants to “reduce its visible presence, but maintain
logistical, human and material access to these countries, while
reinforcing our action in response to their aspirations”.
France is also increasingly forming closer relations with former
British colonies like Nigeria and Kenya, which do not carry the same
hurt and resentment against Paris as their Francophone neighbours. In
December, Macron feted Nigerian President Ahmed Tinubu, using pidgin
English in his welcome address.
“For France, it’s like a clean slate,” analyst Ochieng said.