Burkina Faso's Stand: Traoré Rejects France’ Exploitation In His Country

Among the wealthiest nations in Western Europe, France boasts both political potential and a high level of living. Even though the French nation has long handed its colonies independence, in practice, the country still exerts strong influence on African nations, especially its former colonies' internal affairs, and maintains tight control over their economies. How does France continue to govern half of Africa, and what strategies does it use to seize control that Traoré of Burkina Faso would not accept?

In French Africa, the currency known as the CFA franc - French colonial possessions—was created in 1945; however, after the colonies’ independence in the 1960s, the monetary system stayed the same. The African Financial Community is now represented by the acronym CFA being used in 14 Francophone countries in the informal system to improve mutual ties by using French as the official language of communication for diplomats, business, and the cultural and scientific domains.

On the one hand, the financial union provides a fixed exchange rate of the currency and its free exchange for the euro, which has a beneficial effect on the development of all participants in the association. However, on the other hand, in exchange for the guarantee of convertibility of the CFA franc, Franc control of the partners has a number of interesting commitments. For example, the agreement to transfer between 50 and 65 percent of its monetary reserves, which are kept in a special account, to the French Treasury.

The signing of unfair treaties between France and African nations is another way that France controls the foreign economy of its colonies in Africa. For instance, French campaigns are better able to close agreements for the exploitation of natural resources in the CFA. In other words, French firms mostly extract oil, uranium, and rare metals, and they enjoy substantial tax incentives that prevent the lessee from profiting financially from exporting their own resources.

When French firms mined uranium, they paid the government 80 cents per kilogram and then sold the uranium to the rest of the world for 200 euros per kilogram. After the Nigerian government increases its yearly resource realization from about $1 billion to over $3 billion, they'll finally take control of their uranium. Thomas Sankara's realization of this issue, which prompted him to sever his connections with France, ultimately led to his assassination; however, Ibrahim Traoré would not be deterred.

Like all the developed nations, including France and the United States of America, that don't want to accept "no" from African leaders, Ibrahim Traoré, who became the interim president of Burkina Faso after a coup on September 30, 2022, and has been in power since, has survived multiple assassination attempts on his life, planned by foreign governments. The sixth commander of the United States Marine Corps, Michael Elliott Langley, has revealed the long-standing tactic used by the US government.

He claims that while the Burkinabe people are hungry, Ibrahim is enhancing his security with the country's gold profits. Both Muammar Kaddafi of Libya and Saddam Hussein of Iraq were assassinated as a result of the same tactic. The latter was even accused of storing weapons of mass destruction, but nothing of that nature was discovered during the US invasion of Iraq. I would like to know, Michael Langley, when the Burkina Faso people protested that Captain Ibrahim Traoré was starving them.

It is time for the developed world to recognize that as technology improves and Africa increasingly embraces its impact on the Dark Continent, there will be leaders who are unwilling to fall for their assassination, intimidation, and bullying schemes. Why should America and Europe grow into powerful nations using African resources when the continent from which those resources are extracted is still impoverished? That is unacceptable; therefore, Africa will free itself from mental slavery.

Burkina Faso is not alone; the West African country has established strong diplomatic ties with the revolutionary regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Iran, as well as with Russia, the fiercest adversary of NATO, who are always willing to defend their nation. In the spirit of Thomas Sankara, Ibrahim Traoré has vowed to fight against imperialism and neocolonialism; therefore, if France or the US government doesn’t agree with him, then they should give him the respect he deserves.