Page 190 - Afrika Must Unite

NEO-COLONIALISM IN AFRICA x75

colonies as tightly closed preserves. W hen it became obvious
that national sovereignty could no longer be withheld, the
ground was prepared for maintaining the emerging independent
nations within the French orbit. They were to remain suppliers of
cheap raw materials and tropical foodstuffs while continuing to
serve as closed markets for French products.
Soon after the Second W orld W ar, France set up two financial
organizations for the purpose of ‘aiding economic development’
in her overseas territories. These were F.I.D.E.S. (Fonds
d’Investissement et Developpement Economique et Social) and the
G.G.O.M. {Caisse Centrale de la France d’Outre-mer.)
Subventions from C.C.O.M . went to the budgets of the former
French colonial territories to help meet the cost of public
administration and the m aintenance of French forces in the
territories. Investment in the social and economic development
of France’s overseas territories was largely an euphemism for the
siphoning of funds through F.I.D.E.S. into these former French
colonies and back again to France. It has been estimated that
as much as 80 per cent of such so-called investment returned to
France in the form of payments for materials, services, com­
missions, bank charges and salaries of French staffs and agents.
Projects undertaken were mainly in the sphere of public services
and agriculture. They were woefully inadequate and improperly
planned, with little or no regard for local conditions or needs.
No attem pt was made to lay the foundations for industrial
growth or a diversification of agriculture which would assist true
development. F.I.D.E.S. and C.C.O.M . have given place to the
F.A.C. (Fonds d'Aide et de Cooperation) and C.C.C.E. (Caisse
Centrale de Cooperation Economique). The newly named agencies,
however, perform the same functions as the old ones on exactly
the same terms. Investment continues to support the production
of exportable community crops and the trading enterprises of
French commercial houses and contracting firms who secure
their supplies from French factories and industrial centres.
French bankers and financial concerns linked with some of the
biggest raw material converters are being encouraged to extend
the exploitation of minerals in the former colonial territories for
exportation in their prim ary form.
Thus, even though independent in name, these countries