French Monetary Colonialism, Bitcoin & Africa with Alex Gladstein

— France maintains financial control over 15 CFA-zone nations in Africa through a colonial-era currency system despite granting political independence after 1960.

— The CFA franc was imposed through violent coercion and political assassination (notably Sylvanus Olympio of Togo), and France continues to dictate monetary policy, interest rates, and reserve management from Paris.

— France devalued the CFA by over 99% between WWII and the late 1990s, destroying citizens' savings and locking these nations into raw-material extraction while France captured profits from finished goods and infrastructure.

— Bitcoin offers a decolonial alternative by enabling peer-to-peer financial sovereignty outside French-controlled systems, particularly impactful for remittance flows that currently enrich the Franco-state complex.

— The Human Rights Foundation funds Bitcoin education and privacy projects in emerging markets, including recent work in Senegal, to support financial freedom and human rights in authoritarian regions.

— Language, education, and cultural control reinforce monetary colonialism; Macron actively promotes French as Africa's primary language to sustain dependence on French institutions and ideology.

— Learn and teach others about the CFA system to build awareness that financial colonialism persists in 180+ million people across 15 African nations; understanding this context illuminates how Bitcoin functions as a practical tool for decolonization.

— Support HRF's Bitcoin education and privacy initiatives or donate to projects advancing financial sovereignty in emerging markets; direct contributions fund real alternatives to exploitative monetary systems.

— Use peer-to-peer Bitcoin transfers for remittances to family or contacts in CFA nations instead of banking channels, eliminating middlemen fees that currently accrue back to the French state.