Veronica Kiang examines the rising demand for gold in technology and its disproportionate effects on West African nations in the Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) franc zone. In unraveling how imperialism continues to manifest in the “Technocene”, she argues that racial capitalism and extractivist practices function to further entrench enduring colonial hierarchies, as the case of West Africa illustrates.
TWAILR: Reflections ~ 80/2026
Consumption culture’s voracious appetite, driven by technological advancements, has undeniably impacted the planet. In particular, there has been an exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) that has generated an increasing demand for more hardware. As a result, the use of gold in such technology rose in 2023. This reliance is unsurprising as gold is highly favoured in electronics due to its properties; not only is it extremely conductive, but it is also resistant to corrosion and oxidization. These characteristics make it indispensable in high performance electronic connections, which include examples such as electronic connectors in cellphones, computers, and cars; circuit boards; wire bonding; and soldering to preventing devices from overheating. In this context, the relationship between technology and resource extraction is symbiotic: as electronic production increases its demands of gold, so too will mining activity.
The need for metals used in hardware means more mining in the West African Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) franc zone1 – former French colonies that continue to use the colonial currency. In 2022, West African CFA franc (XOF) countries exported a total of $20.997 billion (USD) worth of gold. It was the biggest export in: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and Togo. In Côte d’Ivoire and Benin, gold was the second largest export. Increased mining in these countries may lead to, or exacerbate, a plethora of harmful impacts associated with the industry: environmental degradation, health and safety concerns of the miners, socioeconomic issues for nearby habitants, sociopolitical conflicts, and governmental instability. As the monetary impacts of the Technocene—the geological epoch in which technology and its political economy has contributed to the planetary crisis—continues to be studied, there has been a lack of scholarly attention on the CFA franc countries. For all the foregoing reasons,I argue that the rising demand for gold in technology will disproportionately affect West African nations in the CFA zone, thereby further entrenching these countries’ dependence on a colonial currency. In unravelling how imperialism continues to manifest in the Technocene, a much larger issue rears its head—extractivism. While I do argue that there is a link between the Technocene and CFA franc, the crux of this paper then lies in how racial capitalism and extractivism continue to entrench colonial hierarchies.
Let the Colonies Eat Cake: the CFA Franc as a Colonial Currency
The CFA franc is a colonial currency that continues to subjugate former colonies under French rule. Its impacts may not be overtly harmful, but it continues to act as a slow agent of death, bleeding former colonies dry of resources under the guise of structure and institution. Notably, following the Second World War (WWII), all currencies recognized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were structured around a fixed and adjustable parity with the US dollar (USD), while the USD remained the only currency tied to gold. The CFA Franc was created by France in 1945 as a unitary currency for French African colonies and operates on four principles: 1) the value of the CFA franc is pegged to France’s currency, which was originally the French franc and now the euro; 2) transactions and capital move freely within the franc zone and France; 3) the free and unlimited convertibility between the franc zone currencies and the metropole’s currency; and 4) foreign exchange reserves are centralized in the French Treasury.
Despite being framed as a unified monetary system, it operates through distinct currencies within the franc zone, including the West African CFA franc (XOF), the Central African CFA franc (XAF), and Comorian francs (KMF), none of whom have been freely convertible with one another and the euro since 1993. Nations using the XOF are in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which uses the centralized bank Banque Centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO). To engage in cross-currency transactions, CFA francs must be converted to euros through the operations account in the Paris foreign exchange market. In pegging the CFA franc to the euro, France acts as a ‘guarantor’ that provides free and unlimited convertibility of the XOF, XAF, KMF, and euro. The consequences of this arrangement become most apparent in the material limits of the currency itself. Indeed, the bureaucratic process of exchanging renders the CFA franc effectively inert beyond its designated zone as the value of the banknote ceases to exist once outside the area of issue. In this sense, the currency is territorially confined and restricted in a manner that mirrors the broader economic containment imposed on CFA states as CFA banknotes are only valid in the CFA zone.
The four operating principles of XOF irrefutably favour the metropole, and its consequences are threefold. Firstly, France is involved with every international transaction. Foreign currencies must be converted to euros then XOF, or vice versa, through Paris. Secondly, centralized banks must maintain parity with the euro. This means the BCEAO could grant less loans to commercial banks and governments. Thirdly, using euros to trade may decrease export earnings and increase debts. Most CFA zone exports are denominated in dollars or pounds. Tying the XOF to the euro means using a currency that fluctuates against their biggest trade partners.
Inequalities related to resource extraction have long existed and shaped the Françafrique; yet, the AI rush threatens to intensify these disparities even further rather than disrupt them. These inequalities are unsurprisingly a part of pattern of imperial extraction, which reduce former colonies to an unlimited reserve and source of raw materials, which constrain their ability to industrialize their economies. This is reflected in basic colonial economic logic, that goes like this: if raw materials cannot be transformed into finished products in the former colonies, then the need to import these manufactured goods creates demand that only few countries can meet.
The systemic issues of the currency, in conjunction with the rising demand of gold, show that the cost of developing AI comes at a higher price for West African states in the CFA zone: countries are being denied full access and autonomy to their funds in order to maintain parity between currencies. This erodes monetary sovereignty, which also makes XOF nations more susceptible to other forms of imperialism, such as the microcredit industry.
Fool’s Gold: Racial Capitalism and Extractivist Logics
The lack of monetary sovereignty is merely one node of the broader colonial economic architecture sustained by the advancement of AI. To understand this constraint fully, we must examine how it operates in tandem with the increased demands for gold in West Africa. Indeed, these pressures work together to further entrench the hegemonic deficits already baked into the CFA franc which, again, are directly linked and found in racial capitalism and extractivism – a currency that has remained a relic of French colonialization and continues to perpetuate the persistence of capitalism across the region.
Racial capitalism, coined by Cedric Robinson, is integral to extractivism. At its core, extractivism is concerned with capital accumulation through resource extraction, both human and natural, that results in irreversible damage or depletion. This drain of resources reflects asymmetrical power dynamics between states, corporations, and communities that have been part and parcel of capitalism and its colonial history. Despite well-founded concerns with permanent ecological damage, extractivism continues to spread as a global capitalist practice. It relies on the premise that resources are not living, and thus that nature can be conquered. Continued reliance on a system that is inherently built on exclusionary logics of domination serves to reinforce global inequalities.
Modern gold mining in West Africa remains extractivist due to the predatory nature of the Global North’s demand. This reflection introduces a new dimension to consider—one that continues to exacerbate current dynamics—by discussing the overlooked colonial history of the CFA franc. The currency, the mechanism of trade itself, is another avenue of domination. However, this new interface of colonialism to consider is born from a web of international power dynamics. In other words, the CFA franc is ipso facto harmful as a colonial currency; the XOF will continue to act as an agent of oppression because of the extractivist practice in mining blood minerals for technology. The core is racial capitalism and subsequently extractivism; the CFA franc is just a reflection and simulacrum of the neocolonial dynamics at another level.
Obatala’s Gold Chain: creating planetary stories and futures
There will come a time when nations are ready to leave the franc zone, and this institutional mechanism exists. Revealingly, the Treaty of WAEMU allows nations to simply withdraw, so long as they notify the Conference of Heads of State and Government. If all WAEMU nations withdraw, they can form their own financial coalition based on Afro-autarky—a decolonial movement dedicated to more self-sufficient markets away from colonial dependence. Yet we must ask ourselves why such an escape remains largely theoretical. As this paper has demonstrated, the answers lie in the fact that understanding the power of European markets were neither divined nor inevitable; their power is the result of centuries of racial capitalism.
A repackaged empire is no less deadly than the original iteration.
As it stands, the abolition of the CFA franc could bring about worldmaking possibilities that reflect the anti-colonial principles discussed at the 1955 Bandung Conference and reflected in the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) in 1974. The NIEO sought to balance the global economy by favouring trade from the Global South, and embraced the idea of uplifting developing economies as an international responsibility. Drawing inspiration from past movements, mitigating the harms of the CFA system means embracing internationalist values that emphasize community.
What will not work is a new colonial currency that replaces the old. France’s proposal for a new currency—the ‘eco’—to replace the CFA franc in West and Central Africa risks reproducing the same dependency. While France claims it will no longer hold onto foreign reserves, the eco will still be pegged to the euro. Just as Frantz Fanon conveyed, “[the black man] must be black in relation to the white man,” the CFA franc does not exist without its relation to the euro. No matter the eco or XOF, so long as the currency remains solely tied to the euro, there is no monetary sovereignty. A repackaged empire is no less deadly than the original iteration.
Conclusion
This reflection has illuminated how the Technocene exacerbates economic harm experienced by West African countries in the franc zone. The advancements of AI currently affecting the demand for gold, and West African mining operations are generally predicted to maintain their growth or increase in production over the next decade. The XOF is a neocolonial currency that allows France to maintain control over its former colonies. The requirement to maintain parity and hold funds in their operational accounts means that CFA franc countries have less access to liquid capital, forcing them to redirect money away from national development priorities and to France. If decolonization proceeds incrementally, then the harms of the CFA franc need to be addressed. True transformation requires confronting extractivism through the political economy that upholds its inequities. The price of empire is not just measured in currency; it’s measured in monetary sovereignty.