Black History Month series: Black History, Not White Lies – Togo – by Korrine Sky

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Togo’s first president was gunned down at his own gate in 1963.
His crime? Daring to reject France’s money.

Sylvanus Olympio wanted more than a flag and an anthem.
He wanted a currency for his people.
A future not chained to Paris.

For that, he was shot dead by Togolese soldiers trained in France.
Africa’s first post-independence coup.

The weapon was not just the gun.
It was the CFA franc.

Created in 1945, it forced African nations to deposit their reserves in the French Treasury.
It gave Paris veto power over African economies.
It made independence a flag ceremony... and nothing more.

France called it “stability.”
In truth, it was financial slavery.
An empire without the cost of soldiers.

Olympio was killed.
Lumumba was killed.
Sankara was killed.
Nkrumah was overthrown.

The message was written in blood:
Africa may raise its flags.
But touch the money... and you will fall.

And what did it mean for the people?

A farmer in Togo sells cocoa for pennies.
Meanwhile, French companies make billions from chocolate in Paris.
A child studies in a crumbling classroom,
while billions of African reserves sit locked away in French banks.
Generations living on scraps, while their wealth feeds another nation’s treasury.

Today, 14 African countries still use the CFA franc.
And youth fill the streets, burning CFA notes in fire and fury,
demanding the freedom their parents were denied.

Africa is not poor.
It is being robbed.
Impoverished by design.

And the CFA franc is the chain around its neck.

This is Day 3 of my Black History Month series: Black History, Not White Lies.

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It's all Greek to me ;-D

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