Thread by @wmhuo168

“How France Lost Its Empire but Kept the ATM, and Let the Anglos in on the Heist.”

https://x.com/AfricanHub_/status/1921872592341758278?t=Y4HYiwBx-YXsDQHmA0JG5w&s=09

Colonialism by Consortium: The West’s Syndicate in Francophone Africa
The French Empire never really ended. It just opened the boardroom and let the Anglos in. What followed was a multi-party colonial project run like a cartel. Let’s unpack it. (1/17)

France didn’t decolonize. It rebranded. It kept the military bases, the CFA franc, and the political leash. What it outsourced was the mess and the money. The Anglo trio—US, Canada, Australia—signed on for the extraction rights. (2/17)

Today, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Guinea aren’t sovereign nations. They’re joint ventures. Their presidents pose for flags. But their gold, bauxite, uranium and lithium are already accounted for on foreign balance sheets. (3/17)

The “investors”? Barrick (Canada), Newmont (US), Resolute (Australia), Orano (France), Endeavour (UK/Canada). They take the minerals, pay pennies, and leave behind poisoned rivers and ghost towns. Then they call it development. (4/17)

France handles the politics. It props up regimes, trains gendarmes, and bankrolls cronies. In return, it keeps a cut of the action through legacy contracts and currency control. The CFA franc still routes reserves through Paris. (5/17)

Meanwhile, the U.S. built AFRICOM, not to fight terror, but to map resource corridors, monitor China, and protect mining operations. “Stability” means keeping Western assets safe, not African civilians alive. (6/17)

When Russia’s Wagner enters the room, it’s called imperialism. When G4S or DynCorp show up, it’s called peacekeeping. Same mercenaries. Different flags. One protects Brussels, the other Moscow. Africans still bury the dead. (7/17)

Canada plays clean capitalism. ESG reports. Climate audits. Gender-balanced boardrooms. But behind the greenwashing is the same colonial playbook. Control the mines. Starve the locals. Outsource the blame. (8/17)

Australia joins with mining firms and advisors. It doesn’t even pretend to care about human rights. It brings engineers, lawyers, and lobbyists. Quiet, brutal, and efficient. The Crocodile Dundee of neocolonialism. (9/17)

The IMF and World Bank provide the financial scaffolding. Loans with strings. Austerity on command. Sell your ports, privatize your power grid, fire your teachers. Then open wide for foreign capital. (10/17)

Try to break free? Try nationalizing a mine or ditching the CFA franc? Then come the sanctions, the op-eds, the coups, the drone strikes. The West won’t let go of your gold unless your soil burns with it. (11/17)

It’s not just extraction. It’s architecture. France builds the house. The Anglos furnish it with contracts, PR, military advisors, and legal fences. You can vote. But you can’t redecorate. (12/17)

Why now? Why the panic in Paris, Ottawa, Washington, and Canberra? Because the host is waking up. The Sahel is kicking out France. Turning east. Keeping its gold. Asking questions no colony is supposed to ask. (13/17)

Traoré isn’t a problem because he’s radical. He’s a problem because he’s effective. No debt. New roads. Gold reserves rising. And no white flag over the treasury. That’s what scares them. (14/17)

This isn’t about ideology. It’s about control. And for the first time in 60 years, France can’t enforce it alone. The Anglos see the writing on the wall, but they still want their cut before the curtain falls. (15/17)

Colonialism didn’t vanish. It got new shareholders. The French provide the uniforms. The Anglos count the profits. And Africa provides the blood, the ore, and the silence. (16/17)

But silence is ending. And for the first time in a long time, West Africa is speaking with a voice no empire can ignore. A voice that says: The mines are ours. The gold is ours. The future is ours. (17/17)