ISMAIL LAGARDIEN: Stop the daydreams about a common African currency
Ideological or revolutionary recitations are not a basis for such a vast undertaking
Recent discussions about a common currency for South America, initially between Brazil and Argentina and later to include other countries in the region, had me thinking of a bright-eyed mid-career student who once told me, with great confidence and pride, that Africa should have its own currency “called the afro”.
Never one to kill a discussion in class, however unreasonable or absurd it may be, I engaged the fellow, treating him the way the late Richard Feynman would, by pretending to be dumb. I drew a square at the top of the chalkboard and inserted the word “afro” in the square. That, I said, is where you want to be. “What has to happen before that?” ..
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