14 African Countries Forced by France to Pay Colonial Tax For the Benefits of Slavery and Colonization

http://www.siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/

~just to check if Nigeria is listed mistakenly~

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linkcrafter.com. Mail | Web | More Posts Share it! Did you know many African
countries continue to pay
colonial tax to France since
their independence till today! 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. 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. The purpose of this outrageous
act was to send a clear
message to all other colonies
that the consequences for
rejecting France would be very
high. 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 “We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.” Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of the Republic of
Togo, a tiny country in west
Africa, found a middle ground
solution with the French. He didn’t want his country to
continue to be a french
dominion, therefore he
refused to sign the
colonisation continuation pact De Gaule proposed, but agree to pay an annual debt to
France for the so called
benefits Togo got from french
colonization. It was the only conditions for the French not to destroy the country before leaving. 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. 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. 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 Etienne Gnassingbe who supposedly received a bounty
of $612 from the local French
embassy for the hit man job. Olympio’s dream was to build
an independent and self-
sufficient and self-reliant
country. But the French didn’t
like the idea. On June 30, 1962, Modiba Keita , 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. On November 19, 1968, like,
Olympio, Keita will be the
victim of a coup carried out by
another ex French Foreign
legionnaire, the Lieutenant Moussa Traoré. In fact during that turbulent period of African fighting to liberate themselves from European colonization, France would repeatedly use many ex Foreign legionnaires to carry out coups against elected presidents: - On January 1st, 1966, Jean- Bédel Bokassa, an ex french foreign legionnaire, carried a
coup against David Dacko, the first President of the Central
African Republic.
- On January 3, 1966, Maurice Yaméogo, the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta,
now called Burkina Faso, was
victim of a coup carried by Aboubacar Sangoulé Lamizana, an ex French legionnaire who
fought with french troops in
Indonesia and Algeria against
these countries independence.
- on 26 October 1972, Mathieu Kérékou who was a security guard to President Hubert Maga, the first President of the Republic of Benin, carried a
coup against the
president, after he attended French military schools from 1968 to 1970. 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. Number of Coups in Africa by country Ex French colonies Other African countries Country Number of coup Country number of coup Togo 1 Egypte 1 Tunisia 1 Libye 1 Cote
d’Ivoire 1 Equatorial
Guinea 1 Madagascar 1 Guinea
Bissau 2 Rwanda 1 Liberia 2 Algeria 2 Nigeria 3 Congo –
RDC 2 Ethiopia 3 Mali 2 Ouganda 4 Guinea
Conakry 2 Soudan 5 SUB-TOTAL 1 13 Congo 3 Tchad 3 Burundi 4 Central
Africa 4 Niger 4 Mauritania 4 Burkina
Faso 5 Comores 5 SUB-TOTAL 2 32 TOTAL (1 + 2) 45 TOTAL 22 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. In March 2008, former French
President Jacques Chirac said: “Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power” Chirac’s predecessor François Mitterand already prophesied in 1957 that: “Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century” 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. 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 year in year out. 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. African leaders would work in the interest of their people if they were not constantly stalked and bullied by colonial countries. In 1958, scared about the
consequence of choosing
independence from France, Leopold Sédar Senghor declared: “The choice of the
Senegalese people is
independence; they want it to
take place only in friendship
with France, not in dispute.” 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. Below are the 11 main
components of the
Colonisation continuation pact
since 1950s: #1. Colonial Debt for the
benefits of France colonization The newly “independent”
countries should pay for the
infrastructure built by France
in the country during
colonization. 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). #2. Automatic confiscation of
national reserves The African countries should
deposit their national
monetary reserves into France
Central bank. 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. “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 “operations account”
held at the French Treasury, as
well as another 20% to cover
financial liabilities. 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. In short, more than 80% of the
foreign reserves of these
African countries are deposited
in the “operations accounts”
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. 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 “operations accounts”, 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 Dr. Gary K. Busch 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. The African countries don’t have access to that money. 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. 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. Former French
President Jacques Chirac 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.” #3. Right of first refusal on
any raw or natural resource
discovered in the country 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. #4. Priority to French interests
and companies in public
procurement and public biding 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. 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. In the end, as I’ve written in a
previous article, Africans now Live On A Continent Owned by
Europeans! #5. Exclusive right to supply
military equipment and Train
the country military officers 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. 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! #6. Right for France to pre-
deploy troops and intervene
military in the country to
defend its interests 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
countries, run entirely by the
French. French military bases in Africa When President Laurent Gbagbo 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. 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. After France succeeded the
coup, and transferred power
to Alassane Outtara, France requested Ouattara
government to pay
compensation to French
business community for
the losses during the civil war. Indeed the Ouattara
government paid them twice
what they said they had lost in
leaving. #7. Obligation to make French
the official language of the
country and the language for
education Oui, Monsieur. Vous devez
parlez français, la langue de
Molière! 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. As demonstrated in this article, 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. #8. Obligation to use France
colonial money FCFA 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. 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. #9. Obligation to send France
annual balance and reserve
report. Without the report, no money. 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. #10. Renonciation to enter
into military alliance with any
other country unless
authorized by France 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!). In the case France ex-colonies,
France forbid them to seek
other military alliance except
the one it offered them. #11. Obligation to ally with
France in situation of war or
global crisis Over one million africans soldiers fought for the defeat of nazism and fascism during
the second world war. 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. There is something almost psychopathic in the relation of France with Africa. 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. 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. These 2 institutions are not
only a threat to Africa, but to
the French themselves. It’s up to us as African to free ourselves, without asking for permission, because I still can’t understand for example how 450 french soldiers in Côte d’Ivoire could control a population of 20 millions people!? People first reaction when
they learn about the french
colonial tax is often a
question: “Until when?” For historical comparison,
France made Haiti 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 abolition of slavery and the liberation of the Haitian slaves. African countries are paying
the colonial tax only for the
last 50 years, so I think one
century of payment might be
left!