Money, Freedom, a Story of the CFA Franc

Can a former colony ever be truly free if its money is still controlled by its former oppressors? Katy Lena N’diaye investigates the tainted history of the CFA franc, a currency created by France for its former sub-Saharan African colonies to jointly use after their independence, yet one even now still controlled by France. “You can’t understand the history of the CFA if you don’t understand, on the other hand, the history of Africa’s insertion into international commerce,” notes one observer in this insightful documentary, which is “the most important contemporary document on Francophone Africa’s malignant economic relations with France” (Film Verdict).