When Unification Creates Hierarchies or, The Deadly Life of Currency Unions

Abstract

The picture of holding the same money in our hands across borders has time and again served as a symbol of unity, while its divisive potential often disappears behind a veil of hope. Real monetary solidarity-the necessary flip side of Pan-African trade and development-requires more than a simplistic plaster of neoliberal currency unions. The time is now to counter the US dollar dominance, and discussions of South-South monetary solidarity are many-from the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the West African eco, the East African Monetary Union (EAMU), to a potential sur in Latin America and a move away from the petrodollar system. This contribution outlines a continuum of monetary unification systems and stresses the fundamental nature of political commitment to solidarity across monetary, productive, social, and political frontiers in order to achieve monetary unification as a stepping-stone to Pan-African unity.