How a currency became a lightning rod for anti-French sentiment in West Africa

During the morning rush hour, people and cars whiz past Birahim Diallo’s rickety wooden coffee stand. One after another, customers hand him coins in exchange for a small cup of a dark, spiced coffee called Café Touba. But each time he opens his hand to receive a payment, Mr. Diallo feels a flicker of anger. 

“When I see the CFA, I see my colonizer,” says Mr. Diallo. That’s a reference to Senegal’s currency, the Financial Community of Africa franc, which is commonly known by its French acronym, CFA. 

Originally created by the French colonial government in the mid-1940s, the CFA is today the currency of 14 countries in central and western Africa. That history makes it a perennial lightning rod for debates about France’s role in its former colonies on the continent. 

This money feels like “it’s not mine, it’s from another country,” says Mr. Diallo, swirling spices and coffee grounds in a metal teapot over a portable gas stove. 

Many other Senegalese feel the same. Recently, the movement against the CFA has been gathering new momentum here and across the region, spurred by leaders who see it as a vestige of colonialism that stifles their economies. 

“Currency is a question of sovereignty,” explained Senegal’s new Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko earlier this year. 

But the debate is far from over. The CFA also still has many supporters in the region, who argue the sentiment against it is emotionally charged and vague on reasonable alternatives. 

“Your wallet in someone else’s pocket”

The appeals to leave the CFA are not new. They began decades ago, during Africa’s independence wave.

Guinea adopted its own currency in 1960, shortly after its independence, as did both Madagascar and Mauritania in the early 1970s. Those departures were motivated in part by what the currency symbolized. It was a constant, always visible sign of France’s continued economic and social influence in its colonies, a relationship often called “Francafrique.” 

Today, eight African countries use the West African CFA franc as their official currency, and six others use the Central African CFA. Both are pegged to the euro, which ensures a level of financial stability in countries where it is used. But critics note that this also potentially limits the countries’ economic growth because they cannot devalue the currency to make the prices of their goods more competitive internationally, as is done in countries like China. 

This lack of control creates disadvantages for African governments when negotiating contracts to extract natural resources like oil or gold, says Senegalese economist Demba Moussa Dembele, director of the Forum for African Alternatives, a research organization based in Dakar. 

Echoing that sentiment, Senegalese singer Tièmoko Koné argues, “whoever controls the currency of a country controls its economy.”

In 2018, Mr. Koné, who is better known by his stage name Jah Moko Family, was one of 10 African musicians who wrote and performed a soulful, rap-infused ballad called  “7 minutes contre le CFA” – 7 minutes against the CFA – detailing reasons that African countries should leave the currency. 

Their arguments were partly economic. “Imagine that your wallet is someone else’s pocket,” goes one verse. “Break the chains of this economic slavery,” demands another. 

But the song also speaks to the emotional charge of the CFA, one of the most visible symbols of the relationship between France and its former colonies, which remains in many ways deeply unbalanced.“The young generation of the mother continent will no longer be witness to the assassination of our dignity,” the song’s opening explains. 

“It’s not that we hate the French or that we hate France,” says Mr. Koné, who is originally from Mali. “It’s just [that] we want balanced, healthy relations between France and Africa.”

However, calls to leave the CFA zone do tend to go hand in hand with anti-French and anti-Western sentiment in region. Between 2021 and 2023, military governments came to power through coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. These new governments pledged greater independence from the West, and booted the French troops stationed in their countries. Then, late last year, they began discussing abandoning the CFA and starting their own regional currency. 

“There is no longer any question of our countries being the cash cows of France,” said Nigerien military leader Abdourahamane Tiani in February. “France has robbed us for more than 107 years. [A new] currency is a way out of this colonization.” 

Meanwhile, Senegal’s new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, was elected in March in part on his promise to rid Senegal of outside manipulation – including of the country’s economy. He and his prime minister, Mr. Sonko, have discussed either reforming the CFA or leaving it entirely. 

A question of stability 

Still, it remains to be seen if these countries will take tangible steps to boot the CFA. And many in the region – including prominent leaders like Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara – are against the move. 

Back at Mr. Diallo’s coffee stand, repeat customer Ugochukwi Udensi sips his Café Touba as he explains why he doesn’t want Senegal to stop using the CFA.

“The CFA is stable,” he says, using the common colloquial pronunciation, “cefa.”  

A Nigerian immigrant, Mr. Udensi knows well the value of that stability. In the past year, his home country has plunged into an economic crisis, with inflation now hovering at 34 percent. A similar situation would be very unlikely in countries using the CFA because its peg to the euro makes it more resilient to inflation.

Mr. Udensi reaches into the pocket of his jeans and pulls out two wrinkly, sky-blue 2000 CFA notes, which together are worth just under $7. When he sends that amount home, it can sustain his mother for a week or two, he says. “This is a lot of money in Nigeria.”