Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to analyse monetary practices across the boundary between Haute Volta and Gold Coast. Analysing colonial monetary policies, taxation and the flow of currencies across borders, it will show how the people of this region managed the introduction of colonial currencies.

Paper long abstract:

Colonial empires’ boundaries significantly influenced monetary practices in the colonies, especially in bordering areas. This paper focuses on the region enclosed between southern Burkina Faso and northern Ghana from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. This area historically has been characterized by cultural and political coherence. However, in the process of colonization, French and British regimes divided it with the creation of a border, introduced new currencies, and imposed contrasting taxation policies. How did people respond to these new impositions? The paper will consider the socio-economic context and the kind of value systems operating in the area before and during colonial times. The study area was part of a commercial zone characterized by currency multiplicity, different systems of value, and strong commercial networks that endured colonial regimes. Thus, analysing colonial monetary policies, taxation and the flow of currencies across borders, the paper will show how people managed to create monetary circuits by manipulating colonial currencies. In addition, we try to bridge the academic boundary between Francophone and Anglophone African countries. Few studies conducted historical research on the border between Burkina Faso and Ghana, and fewer focused on the multiple currencies circulating across the border. Therefore, based on the results of our archival research in both countries, we attempt to show how the study of multiple currencies could be a useful tool to investigate and analyse diachronically continuities and disruptions brought by colonial borders.