A long time after independence, numerous African nations were progressively upset by the continuous impact of their previous pioneer power.
Natalie Yamb, adviser to Ivory Coast's Freedom and Democracy Party (LIDER) said,
"60 years on, francophone countries in Africa still do not have true independence and freedom from France. Even the content of school textbooks is often still determined by France, she added.
More significantly, the political framework in large numbers of these French colonized nations are imposed by France. Before Independence, France chose to nullify the parliamentary framework in certain nations like Ivory Coast and introduced an official system in which all domains and powers were in the possession of the head of state.
Françafrique, as the French impact in the states is called, stays a reality, the youth are agitated against the previous provincial power development.
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in criticism of France across its colonialist settlements in Africa, established in an inclination that colonialist paternalistic perspectives never truly ended, and pushed by a tide of online entertainment posts, public broadcasts, exhibits and discussions in the city.
In Senegal, the youths who fought last year blamed the president for being a manikin of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who is right now competing for a second tenure. They crushed the windows of French corner stores and set fire on French owned supermarkets.
On December 21, 2019, President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire and Emmanuel Macron of France declared a significant money change in a few West African Francophone nations.
In 2020, eight West African nations having a place with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) renamed their CFA franc to Eco: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. "The Eco is a very old Ecowas project, which France has decided to hijack. They said they're changing the system, but they're only changing the name," Yamb said. "It must be an initiative of an African government. It can't be announced, designed or planned by France."
Many people in these countries are not happy about it, according to them, just changing the name is not sufficient enough for the damages France has cost them.
"The CFA has to go. It is such a ridiculous neo-colonial stunt by the French that it should have gone 60 years ago. A young protestant said, "The first step is to eliminate CFA, the French influenced currency, this will help us move forward in getting true independence for Francophone Africa".
60 years after independence, the francophone countries need African elites who are prepared to put Africa first and change the system to no longer suit France.
As a component of this understanding, French authorities will presently not be addressed on the administering assemblages of these African national banks and member states will never again keep around 50% of their unfamiliar stores in France.
In any case, the currency change still does not look right enough to numerous citizens who feel that the change does barely anything to address the cruel implications of French imperialism in West Africa, where numerous countries are as yet indebted to France.
Presidents of some of the Francophone countries in Africa are beginning to speak up on the French influence. “Stop thinking we are inferior,” said Pierre Togo, a former soldier, addressing France as he nursed a mango juice at a Bamako bar on a recent evening. “France is plotting, playing games, and Africans understand that now.”
This is extremely disappointing for the young people of these nations. Even at the presidential power, there is no willingness to change. They keep on serving France as opposed to serving the wellbeing of their people. However, the young people of the French Colonized nations are increasingly more vocal about guaranteeing genuine autonomy and saying a final farewell to this crazy and undesirable relationship with France.