22nd December, 2019
French President Emmanuel Macron declared on Saturday that colonialism was a “grave mistake” and a “serious fault” made by the French Republic.
He made the statement on Saturday during a joint press conference with the president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara.
“Too often, France is perceived as taking a supremacy stance and to dress itself in the rags of colonialism, which has been a grave mistake, a serious fault of the Republic”, Macron said.
“I belong to a generation which was not” part of the colonial-era, he said.
“The African continent is a young continent,” he said.
“Three-fourths of your country never knew colonialism,” he said, addressing Ivorians and called on African youths to “build a new partnership of friendship with France.”
During his election campaign for presidency Macron had created a storm by calling France’s colonisation of Algeria a “crime against humanity”.
In a 2017 TV interview, he said French actions in Algeria, which achieved independence in 1962 after eight years of war, were “genuinely barbaric, and constitute a part of our past that we have to confront by apologising”
He added that he hoped “a new page” of the story could be written.
Meanwhile, West Africa’s monetary union, part of France’s colonial legacy, has agreed with France to rename its CFA franc the Eco and cut some of the financial links with Paris that have underpinned the region’s common currency since its creation since World War Two.
Under the deal, the Eco will remain pegged to the euro but the African countries in the bloc won’t have to keep 50% of their reserves in the French Treasury and there will no longer be a French representative on the currency union’s board.
Critics of the CFA have long seen it as a relic from colonial times while proponents of the currency say it has provided financial stability in a sometimes turbulent region.
“This is a historic day for West Africa,” Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara said during a news conference with Macron in the country’s main city Abidjan.
In 2017, Macron highlighted the stabilizing benefits of the CFA but said it was up to African governments to determine the future of the currency.
“Yes, it’s the end of certain relics of the past. Yes, it’s progress … I do not want influence through guardianship, I do not want influence through intrusion. That’s not the century that’s being built today,” said Macron.
The CFA is used in 14 African countries with a combined population of about 150 million and $235 billion of gross domestic product.
However, the changes will only affect the West African form of the currency used by Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo – all former French colonies except Guinea Bissau.
The six countries using the Central African CFA are Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, – all former French colonies with the exception of Equatorial Guinea.
The CFA’s value relative to the French franc remained unchanged from 1948 through to 1994 when it was devalued by 50% to boost exports from the region.