Cash-Burning Activist Sets West Africa's Social Media on Fire
- Debate around CFA franc, pegged to euro, flares up in region
- Thousands of people call for demise of African currency
Kemi Seba in 2008.
Photographer: Thomas SAMSON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
A West African activist who burned a bank note to demonstrate his hatred of the regional CFA franc has reignited a decades-old debate and prompted thousands of supporters in former French colonies to turn to social media and demand that the currency be scrapped.
The French-Beninese national, Kemi Seba, appeared in court in Senegal in connection with a video that showed him setting a bank note of 5,000 CFA francs ($9) alight. He was arrested on Aug. 25 after the Central Bank of West African States lodged a complaint for destruction of money.