Abidjan (© 2019 Afriquinfos) - The end of the CFA franc was announced by Presidents Macron and Ouattara in Abidjan, on December 21, in a clever balancing act. The currency was no longer accepted by African public opinion.

“The dollar is our currency but it's your problem”, said the American politician John Bowden Connally, addressing the rest of the world. The same response could apply to the CFA franc, “an African currency, but France's problem”, as it crystallized relations with the continent.

Vestige of the colonial years, the old “Franc of the French colonies of Africa” created in 1945 was no longer accepted by African public opinion who considered, not without reason, that this currency embodied the bygone era of Françafrique.

For several years, we have even been witnessing a hysterization of the debate, between those who welcomed monetary stability mainly because of the unlimited convertibility of the CFA and the fixed parity with the euro, and the others who accused Paris of maintaining the zone franc (14 countries) under guardianship or even in a situation of monetary "bondage", not lacking in arguments it is true: a totally anachronistic name, the presence of French administrators within the Central Banks of the franc zone, the impossibility for them to move the course of their currency to gain in competitiveness and not to suffer in particular from the fluctuations of the euro/dollar parity, of the foreign exchange reserves housed up to 50% in an operating account of the Public Treasury French and the printing of banknotes at the Banque de France printing press in Chamalières... Sixty years after independence, the obvious advantages of this single currency -a factor of economic integration and low inflation we were totally swept away by functionings that had become unbearable for the African populations, young and freed from the former colonial power.

In fact, the debate was not so much technical as political and symbolic, divisive and polemical, passionate and exacerbated. The CFA had become a totem to be knocked down to free oneself from the past.

Let's hope that this essential step will allow France and French-speaking Africa to finally approach a common future, articulated around a partnership freed from any colonial superego.

The conference organized last October at Sciences Po by the students of the School and the Presidential Council for Africa (CPA) was a life-size “test” from this point of view. Face to face, the “pro-CFA” Lionel Zinsou and the “anti-CFA” Kako Nubukpo knew how to abandon anathemas to draw the contours of a possible and desirable consensus. For those who still doubted it, this conference at Sciences Po demonstrated that the status quo was no longer tenable. The lines had to move to save the essential: a single and stable currency.

But in Paris, the French authorities could not take initiatives on their own without reviving accusations of “colonialism”. On the continent, for fear of emptiness, institutional leaders have often shone by their silence, leaving the field open to public opinion convinced that the CFA was the main cause of developmental delay. Populist and demagogic, even conspiratorial and anti-France discourse began to rush dangerously into the breach.

The announcement of the reform of the CFA franc by Presidents Ouattara and Macron in Abidjan, on December 21, during a joint press conference, was therefore a cleverly orchestrated balancing act, combining tactical skill and political voluntarism. The two symbolic locks jumped: the name and the totally outdated presence of French administrators within the Central Banks. Added to this is the technical element that radicalized the anti-CFA positions: foreign exchange reserves domiciled in France.

The Élysée had announced a “Jupiterian” trip devoted to security and military issues. These subjects gave the trip a good rhythm, but history will remember above all that it was in Abidjan that the Eco replaced a CFA franc that had become indefensible.

Let's hope that this essential step will allow France and French-speaking Africa to finally approach a common future, articulated around a partnership rid of any colonial superego to take full advantage of our reciprocal assets: historical and political proximity, a common language, obvious economic potential...

France without Africa is no longer a great power, Africa without France loses an ally and a partner essential to its development. The old CFA did not weigh very heavily in the face of these issues.