Book Review Symposia

This edited collection of 24 Africa experts with diverse academic and practice focused backgrounds is divided into 5 parts and 24 chapters. The focus of the book is to establish African Union (AU) law as a focal point for the development of African countries. It provides a rich vein of scholarly literature which might not always be apparent to international researchers and practitioners. The ambition is to use regional integration law as a springboard for legal and socio-economic growth by avoiding national law failures that have undermined the development of the African continent.

What is particularly fascinating is that the contributors have used different theoretical perspectives and methodologies to assess this evolving body of regional legal regime. No doubt, this pioneering 24-chapter book on the novel concept of AU Law is worth the effort and invaluable to academicians and policymakers alike. This view derives from the fact that the edited volume investigates the domestication of AU Law by African States, particularly in the areas of constitutional law, human rights, democratic governance, and economic law.

This substantial volume sets out to establish the case for recognition of a new field of law. The editors propose a concept of African Union (AU) law – by analogy with the established body of European Union (EU) law – and argue for the need for such a concept in order to create “a platform to examine legal developments in Africa from an Afrocentric perspective”.

The overarching ambition of the book is to advance the conversation on the norm generating aspects of the work of the AU, its organs and its institutions. The broad proposition presented collectively by the contributions is that the AU has become a standards generating regional institution, and that this capacity is rapidly evolving.

The author has carefully identified a vacuum in trademark law and practice in Nigeria and has admirably undertaken the herculean task of filling that gap by bringing to bear a solid 25-years of active and diligent practice in the field. Whilst the availability of local texts on the subject are few and far between, none has attempted to provide a practical guide to trademark law as practiced either before the registry or before the federal high courts. Mark Mordi’s book is likely to be well-received and appreciated by practitioners, the lawyers employed at the Trade Marks registry, scholars, researchers, and judges alike both for the comprehensive treatment of the subject and the erudite rendering of the issues. A review of the intimidating 526 page tome will readily impress on the reader the remarkable industry and intellectual exertion expended in putting it together.

The book on commentaries and analysis on Nigeria’s Trade Marks Act is refreshing. There are limited literatures on trade marks law in comparison to other areas of intellectual property law in Nigeria. The approach adopted and the structure of the book is reader friendly and simple enough for those in the field and those new to the field to comprehend. Indeed, one of the issues in all areas of intellectual property law is clear understanding of what they entail. The passion or interest the author has for the area is thoroughly reflected in the book. Issues were teased out as commentaries; providing further knowledge on intricate areas of the Trade Marks Act in Nigeria.

Voilà bientôt trois ans que ce livre a été publié. Il a même été récemment traduit en italien et en anglais, preuve de l’actualité et de l’intérêt du sujet dont[1] la pertinence n’est plus à démontrer. Parce qu’il pose de manière claire et pédagogique les termes d’un débat fondamental jusque-là largement escamoté, le livre de F. Pigeaud et N. S. Sylla mérite d’être lu et relu. Nous insistons sur l’emploi du qualificatif « fondamental », car la zone franc constitue quasiment le dernier archétype d’un dispositif monétaire néocolonial : d’où le titre de l’ouvrage publié chez Pluto Press qui nous apparaît davantage correspondre à la démonstration de l’ouvrage: Africa’s last colonial Currency. The CFA Franc Story.

In “Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story,” Fanny Pigeaud and Ndongo Samba Sylla highlight the monetary side of French neo-colonialism in Africa, while emphasizing that “There is nothing more ‘political’ than money.” Sylla and Pigeaud provide an overview of the history of the CFA franc, its colonial origins, how it operates both technically and politically, and proposals for more democratic and development-oriented alternatives. They do so in a clear and accessible way that explains basic concepts like foreign exchange rate markets and regimes. This book both reflects and contributes to the growing opposition to the CFA franc. The CFA’s functioning is obscure even in France and the CFA zone member countries; therefore, this newly translated edition is valuable and timely. It helps expand the number of Africans that can meaningfully participate in these crucial debates about the future course of the continent’s development.

In reading Pigeaud and Sylla’s Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story I could not help but think of the word doublespeak which refers to a kind of “language used to deceive usually through concealment or misrepresentation of truth.” Deployed by the American linguistic scholar William Lutz and others doublethink is the kind of manipulation of language and thought, so eloquently deployed by George Orwell in his dystopian novel1984, as a way of maintaining political control. As Orwell argued in his essay “Politics and the English Language” political language and the exercise of power consist “largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness,” while providing “largely the defence of the indefensible.” Orwell’s insight is very applicable to the ways in which political control undergirds economic arrangements as Pigeaud and Sylla’s book discusses.

In our book, we tried to explain the circumstances in which this politico-monetary arrangement was created, how it works, what changes it has undergone, what purposes it serves, what benefits France derives from it, and how it handicaps the development of African countries that use it. While tracing the long history of repression against African political leaders and intellectuals who strove for the monetary liberation of French-speaking Africa, we have not forgotten to mention the recent movements on the continent and in its diaspora that are calling for the end of the CFA franc. Faced with the criticism that the opponents of the CFA franc have no serious alternative to propose, we show that African economists such as the Franco-Egyptian Samir Amin, the Senegalese Mamadou Diarra and the Cameroonian Joseph Tchundjang Pouemi, among others, had outlined different options for leaving this colonial device from the end of the 1960s, that is to say, well before the formulation from 1983 of a single currency project for West Africa.