Farida Nabourema

Farida Nabourema is a social activist and writer, recently emerging as the unequivocal voice of Togo’s pro-democracy movement. Farida has been a fearless advocate for democracy and human rights in Togo since she was a teenager. Through over 400 articles written on her blog and other sites, Farida denounces corruption, dictatorship and promotes a form of progressive Pan Africanism. Nabourema was looking for a tool to help counter the government’s surveillance of how activists and opposition leaders received money, which consequently led to confiscation to prevent them from operating. Her over 20 years-long activism and passion for freeing people from unjust systems, brought her to bitcoin.

Togo is governed by the oldest authoritarian regime in Africa. The same family has been in power for a total of 57 years. Over the past six decades, thousands of Togolese activists have been demanding political freedom but have been crushed in severe repression. Numerous of them are still detained arbitrarily with no trial and have been in prison for years. The regime in Togo has used a very cruel form of repression against dissidents: acpihixiafing them financially. Bitcoin has ever since given new opportunities for resistance. There are Togolese citizens who have been arrested and continue to be held arbitrarily in prison for years simply because they donated money to the resistance movement and their donation was tracked either through traditional bank transfer or remittance.

In Togo, Bitcoin has given a new opportunity for freedom as now citizens are able to bypass financial repression and censorship to support their resistance.

Bitcoin is often blamed for being the channel for illicit money. But data indicates that more than 98% of illicit funds pass through cash or bank accounts. Bitcoin is giving us a lifeline for freedom.

Similar to the case of Togo, there are other African nations such as Nigeria, Somalia, or Libya that are facing very tough financial regulations due to illicit and terrorist activities. Millions of citizens can’t easily send money for trade on the simple suspicion of terrorists. Yet these communities are the ones that are the main targets and victims of these terrorist groups, but they are punished for it.

Africa is the youngest continent in the world and by 2050, one in four humans on this planet will be African. The biggest threat to that young population is poverty and unemployment, and that poverty is only worsened by financial exclusion. The poorer that population remains, the more unsafe the world will be for everyone and most particularly for Europe next door.

Bitcoin is creating jobs on the continent as it is allowing young people to sell their talent remotely from across the continent, to trade goods and services at very low fees and will be the only opportunity that these citizens have to trade cross-border cheaply, easily without even needing a bank account. On a continent where more than 70% of the population is unbanked, Bitcoin is their only chance at having financial banking as the countries lack the infrastructure to facilitate easy banking.

These young people if they are deprived of that opportunity will have no other option but to flee their countries and migrate to other nations especially Europe to seek financial opportunities and freedom, and they cannot be blamed for choosing dignity. The European Union by banning Bitcoin will destroy the one tool that can improve the life of these young people and this will only contribute even more to the rising anti-western sentiment which the youths on the continent are developing after decades of colonialism and the apparent Western support to governments that are corrupt, abusive, and repressive. This move by the EU will reinforce that anti-European sentiment and will nourish the narrative that the West wants to do everything to maintain African youths in poverty and bondage.

Bitcoin is not just an economic tool, it is a geostrategic one and banning it is the last line Europe will cross that will completely make these young people lose faith in the possibility of friendly relationships with these nations. The West does not need more enemies at a time when Russia and China are waiting at the door to seize every opportunity to take over.