Skip to main content
West Africa’s Resistance against Imperialism
PRABHAT PATNAIK on how the military governments of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are securing control of their natural resources — a key priority for any truly independent state
Internally displaced people wait for aid in Djibo, Burkina Faso, May 26, 2022 when violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group began surging and spreading across the West African nation

WEST Africa, which had been largely under French colonial rule, never saw decolonisation of the sort that, say, India did. 

For a start, the erstwhile French colonies’ currency continued to be linked to the French franc at a fixed exchange rate, which meant that they could not pursue any fiscal and monetary policy of their choice (for that would have threatened the fixed exchange rate). 

Not only were their foreign exchange reserves kept by France, as had been the case with colonial India where its gold reserves, acquired through enforced borrowing (since all its annual export surplus earnings were taken by Britain) had been kept in London; but France also effectively controlled their fiscal and monetary policy despite formal decolonisation. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A protester against the Iran regime
Middle East / 17 January 2026
17 January 2026

MOHAMMAD OMIDVAR, a senior figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, tells the Morning Star that mass protests are rooted in poverty, corruption and neoliberal rule and warns against monarchist revival and US-engineered regime change

DOLDRUMS: The 26th African Union Summit, 2016. Photo: GovernmentZA/Creative Commons
Features / 4 September 2025
4 September 2025

As the Alliance of Sahel States and southern African nations advance pan-African goals, the African Union must listen and learn rather than parroting the Western line on these positive developments, writes ROGER McKENZIE

West Africa / 10 August 2025
10 August 2025
Orano
World / 22 June 2025
22 June 2025