Debate · structural The CFA Franc & "Modern Colonisation"

Fourteen African nations still use the CFA franc, a currency created by France in 1945 and historically tied to the French Treasury, which members were long required to deposit reserves with. Academic critics (in Third World Quarterly and elsewhere) call it "the most blatant example of functioning neocolonialism in Africa today" — a device sustaining dependency and channeling raw materials (uranium for French nuclear power, manganese, phosphates) on favourable terms. Defenders, including an LSE analysis, argue the reserve mechanism is more symbolic than economically decisive and that recent reforms address the worst of it. The debate over trade-and-currency as soft empire is live and serious — presented here as a debate, with both sides linked.