Monetary Relations of France with the Countries of West Africa: Full-Texts Database on the "Last Colonial Currency" of Africa

The issues of monetary cooperation between France and the member states of the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) have received wide coverage in academic literature. However, the phenomenon of the CFA franc as the "last colonial currency" of Africa is considered mainly in a journalistic vein, in a political and historical context, less often – in an economic context. In order to identify the real structural framework of financial neocolonialism, its "drive belts", an in-depth analysis of the legal aspects of this cooperation is necessary through the prism of the theory of unequal treaties. In this regard, a database of documents on France's relations with the WAMU countries in the monetary sphere was formed and uploaded on the database portal of the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (https://data.inafran.ru), and this article presents its analytical review. The methodological basis of the study includes, among others, the historical-legal and formal-legal approaches which made possible to trace the dynamics of legal regulation of currency relations within the CFA franc zone at three key stages: colonial, postcolonial and post-bipolar. Based on the analysis of an extensive legal framework, it is shown how flexible adaptation to changing economic and legal realities has allowed the main mechanism of French financial neocolonialism in Africa to “keep afloat” for many years. A conclusion is made about the predominantly political nature of the WAMU, which, while being one of the key instruments of “FranceAfrique”, from an economic point of view does not meet the main criteria of optimal currency zones, which is manifested, for example, in the insignificant share of intra-regional trade in the total trade turnover within the WAEMAU. The results of the study may be of interest to specialists in economics, history, international law and international relations. The findings will be especially valuable for experts in the field of French African policy and specialists in African currency zones.