Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa

Maha Ben Gadha is Economic Programme Manager at the North Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Fadhel Kaboub is Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. Kai Koddenbrock is a political economist at Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth. Ines Mahmoud is Economic Programme Manager at the North Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Ndongo Samba Sylla is a Senegalese development economist. He has previously worked as a technical advisor at the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal, and is Programme manager at the West Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. He is the co-author of Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story and author of The Fair Trade Scandal.

Foreword - Prabhat Patnaik

Introduction - By the editors

Part I: The contemporary global economic and monetary order

1. China’s Finance and Africa’s Economic and Monetary Sovereignty - Radhika Desai

Part II: Challenges to monetary sovereignty in the postcolonial periphery

2. Banking, Business, and Sovereignty in Sudan (1956–2019) - Harry Cross

3. Money, Finance, and Capital Accumulation in Zimbabwe - Francis Garikayi

4. Monetary Policy in Algeria (1999–2019): An economic and monetary history approach - Fatiha Talahite

Part III: Increasing sovereignty through monetary unions?

5. The West African CFA Franc Zone as a Double Monetary Union: Loss of economic competitiveness and anti-developmental path-dependencies - Carla Coburger

6. The CFA Franc Under Neoliberal Monetary Policy: A labour-focused approach - Hannah Cross

7. From Central Bank Independence to Government Dependence: Monetary colonialism in the Eurozone - Thomas Fazi

8. Geopolitics of Finance in Africa: Birth of financial centres, not monetary unions - Elizabeth Cobbett

Part IV: Alternatives

9. The Great Paradox: Liberalism Destroys the Market Economy: The pitfalls of the neoliberal recipe forAfrican economic and monetary sovereignty - Heiner Flassbeck

10. Food Sovereignty, the National Question, and Post-colonial Development in Africa - Max Ajl

11. Being Poor in the Current Monetary System: Implications of foreign exchange shortage for African economies and possible solutions - Anne Löscher

12. The German Push for Local Currency Bond Markets in African Countries: A pathway to economic sovereignty or increased economic dependency? - Frauke Banse

Notes on Editors

Notes on Contributors

Index