𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝘀 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗮.
To understand how Russia won a region where it had almost no history, you MUST understand the currency almost no one in the West talks about.
It is called the "CFA franc", and it is one of the most quietly extractive arrangements of the modern era. This is literally like being in the matrix. Retweet and like before continuing to support and amplify my work.
Here is how it worked. 14 African nations, many rich in uranium, gold, oil and minerals, were bound to a currency they did not control.
The paper notes were literally printed in France, by the French, and handed back for these nations to "use among themselves".
The currency was pegged to the French franc, later the euro, at a rate Paris effectively set without much transparency. And for decades these countries were required to park HALF of their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury, in Paris, where France held them and did as it pleased with those reserves...
Consider the mechanics of that exchange. These nations dug REAL wealth out of their own ground such as uranium that powers French reactors, gold, cocoa, oil and "God's money".
And in return they received some 'paper', printed in France, stamped with a currency and 'face value' whose value and rules were decided in Paris, while their actual reserves sat in a French vault.
The deal was that these African countries would send REAL hard resources flowing north to France.
"Printed paper" and monetary dependence flowing south.
A country cannot devalue to compete, cannot set its own monetary policy, cannot fully control its own money. That was NOT partnership.
It was the ultimate form of CONTROL dressed as cooperation, and many Africans came to call it exactly what it feels like, a modern financial captivity. Instead of sending them printers to print and manage their own money, they were sent the printed paper.
France will tell you it reformed this in 2020, ended the reserve requirement, changed the name.
But the euro peg stayed.
The French guarantee stayed.
The deeper dependence stayed.
To the generation now in power across the Sahel, the reform was a new coat of paint on the same cage and same paper...
This is the piece the coverage of the Sahel keeps leaving out.
When people ask how Russia, with barely a century of ties to French West Africa, won the trust of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso so fast, this is the answer.
Russia did not need deep history.
It needed to offer the one thing France never would, a way out.
Out of the currency, out of the bases, out of the arrangement that made political independence in 1960 feel like economic ownership from Paris that never ended.
Russia understood the resentment France refused to take seriously.
It arrived offering arms, security and a partnership with no colonial memory attached, and it let the anger at 88 years of monetary control do the rest.
France did not lose West Africa to Russian brilliance. It lost West Africa to its own refusal to let go of the purse. Russia simply walked through the door that resentment had already opened.
The lesson is old and permanent. You cannot occupy a people's wallet for 80~ years and expect their loyalty forever. Sooner or later, someone offers them the key, and they take it, no matter who is holding it.
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𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗔𝗟, 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗜𝗦𝗘!!
I am Abiola Aremu Ogunlade and
May Nigeria win 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬
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