Once upon a time, BNP Paribas was a pillar of French capitalism in Africa

Within a few months, the adventure of BNP Paribas in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa will come to an end, with the cinching of the sale of its last two major subsidiaries – in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. The heir to the Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris – former sponsor of the “colonial banks” created in the 1850s to “transform into cash the bond indemnities granted to owners who had lost the ‘ownership’ of their slaves”, according to French historian Hubert Bonin – has followed the pace of a certain French capitalism in Africa, both in its advances and in its eventual decline.

From Senegal to Zaire

In the 1930s, the bank’s clients included the general government of Algeria and the general government of French Equatorial Africa. With the arrival of independence, the bank boasted its holdings in Mékambo’s iron ore and the manganese of Franceville, in Gabon, managed by the young