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Government and the economy in former French West Africa

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Government and the economy in former French West Africa

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Content GOVERNMENT AND THE ECONOMY IN FORMER
t /
FRENCH WEST AFRICA
by
Robert Chuba Konwea
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(Economics)
August 1962
UMI Number: EP44791
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U N IV E R S ITY O F S O U T H E R N C A L IF O R N IA
G R A D U A TE S C H O O L
U N IV E R S IT Y PARK
LO S A N G E LE S 7 , C A L IF O R N IA
Ec 6 a K 82
T h is thesis, w ritte n by
ROBERT CHUBA KONWEA -
- .............;...... Cr
under the direction of his S. Thesis C om m ittee, /< ?
and approved by a ll its members, has been p re
sented to and accepted by the D ean o f the
G raduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t o f re
quirements fo r the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Dean
D ate....AugUS £--1-962..
THESIS COMMITTEE
\atrman
6-61—2M—H1
TABLE OF CONTENTS I
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PROBLEM ............... 1
Statement of the Problem .......... 2
Scope of the Study........................ 3
Importance of the Study.................... 4
Limitations of the Study ................ 4
II. HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY.......... 6
Geographical Features ...................... 7
Population and Peoples . ................ 9
General Economic Characteristics .......... 12
III. FRENCH POLICY AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT .... 16
French Colonial Policy .................... 16
Before World War I I ........................ 19
The French Union.......................... 21
The new organs.......................... 23
The French Community .............. 25
IV. THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT.................. 30
Legislative Government.................... 30
Administrative Government.................. 32
* * *
11.x
CHAPTER PAGE
!
j Central government........ . 32 j
1 Local government ....... 35 ;
! V. FINANCES OF FRENCH WEST AFRICA 39 |
i l
|
Public Investment 40 j
Domestic 40 j
Overseas............................. . . 41 '
Private Investment ................ 41
Domestic................................ 43
Overseas................................ 45
Currency and Banking..................... 47
Budget ....... ...................... 50
Sources of Development Fund................ 54
FIDES .................................. 55
CCFOM .................................. 56
The Ten-Year General Plan (1946) 58
VI. AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY AND TRADE......... 62
Agricultural Production .................... 63
Industry and Mining........................ 70
Trade...................................... 76
Foreign Trade.............................. 80
XV
CHAPTER PAGE
i I
VII. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS 84 j
! !
j Education 84 ;
! I
I Educational policy 84 j
^ i
! School system............................ 86
j
1 Africanization Process.................... 90
j Research and Development.................. 91
j Labor ................................ 95
Government and the Missions................ 98
Health Organization and Services.......... 99
VIII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS........................ 102
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................ 113
LIST OF TABLES 1
TABLE PAGE I
I. Government Expenditure under Development '
Plans, French West Africa, 1947-1956 ........ 42
II. Total Appropriation Authorized by FIDES
in French Tropical Africa, 1947-1958 ........ 57
III. French West Africa: Output, Imports, and
I
i Exports of Selected Crops, Average
! 1955-1957 71
! IV. Mineral Production in French West Africa,
| 1947, 1954 .................. 75
, V. Average Output of the Principal Minerals,
I
1955-1957 .................... ....... 77
VI. Imports by Category as Percentage of Total
Value, 1954-1957 ............................ 82
v
1 CHAPTER I I
i i
i
THE PROBLEM
Africa today presents a patchwork quilt of some
! forty-one territorial units ranging from vast areas like .
I . . . . . . ;
:French West Africa to tiny Spanish Ifni, and from the popu-
Jlous Nigeria with over thirty-five million people to the
i
IFrench Somaliland with about thirty-six thousand. Five
I
IEuropean powers (Belgium, Britain, France, Portugal, and
|Spain) are responsible for the administration of these
iarbitrary demarcated territories. Within most of them
!
1
there are to be found other divisive forces of religious or
ethnological nature, and history affords many examples of
how these fissiparous tendencies are apt to succeed once
the power of a central authority weakens or withdraws. At
the same time the necessity of political and economic de
velopment has forced and is still forcing most of the nas
cent African nations to reject Western timetables of
, , prudent, , timing of independence, to demand immediate self-
rule, and to seek territorial regroupings.
1
Meanwhile the events of World War XI and its after-
■math have changed colonial policies in Africa to a large
i
extent— slowly in some, and at an accelerated pace in other
i
areas. The participation of practically all dependent
overseas territories in Africa during that war coupled with
|the enunciation of the policies toward Africa as envisioned
,in the Atlantic Charter brought about a reorientation of
I
1
jthe responsibilities which the metropolitan countries
[exercised on the African countries. Since that world
catastrophe France has made drastic reforms in the consti
tutional arrangements of its overseas empire, now in decay.
The most extensive of the French colonial African terri
tory is that hitherto known as French West Africa.
I. THE PROBLEM
The purpose of this study is to analyze and appraise
the role of French Government in French West Africa in the
general field of political and economic policies in the
fourteen years following the second world war. Specifi
cally, the study examines the varying constitutional set
ups, the economic policy, the private and public agencies
established and operating in various economic activities,
3
the agricultural, industrial, and commercial structures, J
!and the social developments envisaged during that period.
I ■ !
Furthermore, it examines the role of Governments in rela-
9 I
tion to other agencies, and the implications of the entire ,
territory in the European Common Market.
II. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
I
l
I
The period of study chosen covers 1946-1959, and
I :
i
marks the close of the era of imperial doctrine of "assimi- '
lation” and "association” in French colonial economic ad
ministration. In brief, it was a period of political and
economic adjustment following the end of the second world
war and after, and shows the development of a trend toward
increasing Government participation in and direction of
economic and political life in French West Africa. During
this period none of (with the exception of the Republic of
Guinea) the French West African countries had become
politically independent although some indicated this goal
by 1958.
As a background to the period, a brief account of
French colonial policy and administration before World
War II is provided in Chapter III.
III. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY !
I
I This study purposes to provide a balanced appraisal I
i
'of the relation between the French Government and its West j
African economy. It also provides a background against j
which it may be possible to compare or evaluate the eeo-
i
jnomic and political developments, and the role of govern- ;
[ 1
ments under different political dispensations. It is hoped
that this paper will encourage further research on some of
the many subjects touched upon summarily in the discussions.
t
IV. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
i
Among the numerous publications on Africa, few are
those in English that deal with the tropical areas under
French rule. With regard to French West Africa, this lack
is particularly striking, in view of the large body of
works concerning the neighboring and much smaller British
territories. The few studies of French tropical Africa
produced thus far by British and American writers have been
printed in specialized periodicals or embodied in a general
survey of African continent.
i
j In view of the foregoing much of the information
Iobtained from various sources has had little relationship
5 I
to the tropic. Besides printed materials available in the
jUnited States, sources also include documents derived
from correspondence with various African governments, and j
i I
lectures given in seminars on Economic Development and !
i
Economic Organization and Planning by Professors Aurelius
Morgner, Fred Kottke, and John Elliott, Department of
j I
Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
i
1
| CHAPTER II i
1 I
i |
HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY '
The territories formerly known as French West Africa
|or AOF (Afrique Occidentale Francaise) comprise the present ;
i ' ' ' I
republics of Dahomey, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauretania, Niger, (
,
Senegal, Togo, and Upper Volta. Togo was a Uhited Nations |
i ••
Trust Territory under French Mandate.
The emergence of these territories in their present
form and political boundaries dates to about the year 1902.
Mali was formerly called French Soudan and in conjunction
jwith Senegal, formed the short-lived Federation of Mali,
June 20, 1960. Two months later, August 20, Senegal with
drew from the Federation and became an independent state on
the same date. Subsequently, the Soudan changed its name
J ;
i
and became the Republic of Mali, September 22, 1960.
Originally the Federation of Mali, organized January 1,
1959, also included Dahomey and the Voltaic Republic. But
Dahomey failed to ratify the accord, and the Voltaic Repub
lic formally withdrew on February 28. In December, 1959,
6
the republics of Dahomey, Ivory Coast, Niger, and the Upper
Volta formed the Entente Sahel-Benin--the Council of the
i
: Entente. Following the referendum on September 28, 1958,
i
the Republic of Guinea voted itself out of the French Com
munity and became an independent state on October 2. The
t ' ■
i
’other seven Republics (Togo excluded) of the former French
|West Africa belong to a Customs Union. Politically the
nine territories are broadly similar, being in slightly
i
’ differing stages of autonomy and internal affairs.
j
] I. GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES
I
French West Africa occupies the southern and central
portions of the great bulge of West Africa. Including the
I •• ‘
!Republic of Togo, it covers 1,815,000 square miles or one-
jsixth of the continent, and is eight times the size of
I
France or three-fifths that of the Uhited States. The ter
rain measures some 2,100 by 1,400 miles in its extreme
| dimens ions.
| Desert covers the greater part of the territory
I
Iwhile its wealth is concentrated in small areas between
[latitude 5 and 17 degrees north. Much of the coastline
Jconsists largely of mangrove swamps and sand bars marked
;by a chain of lagoons. French West Africa is not character-;
I i
lized by high altitudes; the few elevations higher than one (
I 1
! thousand feet being small in extent. From the south, the
i
jcoastal plain rises rapidly in a broad ridge of which the
' Fouta Djalon, situated in the Republic of Guinea, is the
i , :
jmost important. Beyond this ridge the terrain slopes
|gently to the north toward the Sudanese plains, and eventu-
jally merges with the desert. The two great rivers, the
Senegal and the Niger, form the natural and commercial
waterways to the interior.
The vegetation zones range from the Sahara Desert
through the Sudanese Savannah to the unbroken tropical
forest of Guinea. The Sahara is characterized by very high
temperatures and scarcity of rainfall, a poor vegetation
and rare fauna, and a few oases. Such conditions have re
duced human life there to two main types--the oasis dweller,
who cultivates crops and collects dates, and the nomadic
camel and sheep-herder. The savanna zone with its regular
rainy season and vast inundated regions, provides the most
humane and moderate of the features. The tropical Guinea
zone is rich in natural produce, but its very abundance
is hostile to human habitation as is the barren Sahara.
In this zone lies French West Africa*s timber wealth and
some of its richest mineral deposits.
! The climate varies extremely from the rainless con
tinental desert of the north to the south with its long
rainy season. Rainfall is heaviest in the forest area
ranging from 55 to 170 inches in the South. The average
annual temperatures fluctuate between 77° to 88° F.
II. POPULATION AND PEOPLES
i
The total population including the Republic of Togo
is estimated at about 21,200,000 in 1959 with about 164,000
|non-Africans, mostly French. The non-African population is
\concentrated in the major ports and administrative centers.
I
!The Africans are scattered widely with about 4 million
i
!living within 200 miles of the coast and the rest inland.
I
j At present no census in the ordinary sense of the
jterm has been taken of the population in the French West
jAfrican Territories, save in the case of Europeans, or in
|some cases Europeans and Ossmiles of whom censuses were
taken in 1946 and 1951. For the large African population
it has only been found possible to rely on the best
approximate estimates. Even in this case, the process
ALGERIA
CHAD
UPPER
VOLTA
NIGERIA
RA
LEONE
IVORY
COAST
CAMEROUN
FEDERATION
SENEGAL
FRENCH WEST AFRICA— Dahomey, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania,
Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Upper Volta.
o
of estimation is complicated by the fact that a large part !
i I
!of the population is nomadic. I
j i
The peoples of this area are diverse. Generally j
speaking they are divided into Negroid and Berber or Arab j
origin (including the Moors, the Touaregs, and Peulhs or ;
Fulani). Of the thirteen principal Negro tribes, the out-
■
1
istanding are the Ouolofs of Senegal, the Mandingos of
Sudan, the Fons of Lower Dahomey, and the Mossi of the
iUpper Volta.
J For centuries the people lived in tribes and family
units which functioned as groups linked by elaborate reli
gious and social bonds. Their customs differ widely. Well
into the twentieth century the peasant villages have re-
jtained their local diversity, their solid foundation of
status and custom and their relative self-sufficient eco
nomic life.
At the present, however, these local peasant cul
tures along with the pastoralism of the Northern Savanna
lands are being completely transformed by European influ
ences— by commercialism, European ideas, and modem teeh-
jnology. While these forces began to work more than a
^generation ago, they have been much accelerated in the last
ififteen years or more.
12
The native population is approximately 50 per cent
Muslims, and most of the rest are Christians and Pagans.
}
There are few Christians living in the coastal areas who
|remain fairly faithful to their ancestral beliefs. About
i
1120 indigenous languages are spoken, but the official
\
;language of the federation is French.
I
| III. GENERAL ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS
I
| The economy of the various territories is based
[largely on extractive activities--agriculture, collection
i
jof forest products, fishing, and some mining. Agriculture
is the backbone of the economy and consists of cash crops
destined for export. It is estimated that about 96 per
jcent of the people derive their living from agricultural
jand pastoral activities. The most important exports are
I
peanuts, peanut oil, coffee, cocoa, palm produce, bananas,
and timber. In general, the French economic policy toward
the entire area is that of a closed circuit trading rela
tionships. In other words, France guarantees a market for
(the principal agricultural commodities at well above world
prices. But, on the other hand, the prices paid for the
I
[products imported from France are considerably higher than
13
|prices paid for similar products in neighboring British
Territories. In general, the French Union takes and sup-
■
|plies most of the products imported and exported. The
|United States is the single importer and exporter outside
Jthe French Union. The French take about 78 per cent of
|exports and furnishes 75 per cent of imports.
I
| Mining development is very elementary, with a little
iiron ore and bauxite being exported. There are few in-
l
[dustries except oil extraction plants, two textile mills,
a cement factory, and small industries producing primary
food items.
The transportation is poor because of the great dis
tances. However, a few main roads are being developed
throughout the various territories. Railway lines are
being extended while river navigation is also being ex
panded. Roads, ports, airports, power and large-scale
mechanized cultivators were developed tinder the first four-
year plan, ending in 1952, for communications. The second
four-year plan, beginning in 1954, was devoted to the rais
ing of the standard of living in the villages by increasing
agricultural products and developing mineral resources.
- Scarcely 7 per cent of all school age children
attend school, partly due to financial reasons and partly
,to the resistance of the Moslem areas. In general, there
I
is some efficient organization for primary and secondary
Ieducation, but the percentage of children in the school is
l
istill low. At present, technical schools are being ex
panded, and higher education is being fostered by the
Institute of Higher Studies at Dakar, which is connected
[with French Universities. The school of medicine is re-
I
ceiving slow but increasing attention. In passing, it
jshould be noted that the -University of Dakar founded in
11946 is the only institute of higher learning in French
I
[West Africa. While government schools have been the norm,
mission and other private schools have enjoyed equal rights
as long as they maintained the approved academic standards,
conducted their work in French, and were staffed by teachers
holding metropolitan diplomas.
All labor in the area is controlled under the over
seas Labor Code as promulgated in 1952. The code guaran
teed social emancipation, collective bargaining, right to
join a union and to strike. Three hundred and forty unions
are grouped in three federations. The non-agricultural
labor force comprised almost 2.5 per cent of the total
population--less than 400,000 workers. Of this total less
1 than 70,000 French and Africans belong to the Union.
I
j As part of the ten-year (1948-1958) development pro-
I
!
'gram for the whole French Union, a public health program in
[
{the area envisions the setting up of hospital establish-
|ments in the major populated areas, ambulance units to be
jconcentrated in areas contiguous to the cities, increased
j treatment of diseases and expansion of medical facilities
i
Sat the Dakar school of medicine.
The status of women is subservient except in the
larger towns or cities where access to educational and com
mercial opportunities provide escape as well as possible
jchances of uplift.
| CHAPTER III |
i j
i
FRENCH POLICY AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT i
t
i
| Different policies and methods of administration
;have been used by the European powers in Africa. For
[various reasons some have been more effective than others, j
i
[But the policies of France have been the most diverse and
[contradictory. Until recently, the French empire remained
la highly centralized structure, dominated politically and
.economically by the Metropolitan Parliament or National
Assembly which exercised sovereign authority over all the
territorial units comprising what is euphemistically called
the French Union.
1
I. FRENCH COLONIAL POLICY
i
In principle, France has been dedicated to the
assimilation of its colonies, to making Frenchmen of its
Africans. While social and economic changes were welcome,
the African was not encouraged to develop along his own
lines; rather he was assisted in becoming a French citizen.
16
jA few local deputies had been appointed to serve in a
i j
French national assembly to represent their respective
! i
areas, but these have had very little political power. It (
may be remarked that the eventual emergence of a French
citizenry in all its African dependencies is a goal far in
the unforeseen future. For, outnumbered as the French have 1
been until recently by their colonial citizens, they have I
t
been unwilling to implement their principle. This is j
1largely due to the fear that France itself would be assimi-
lated by its own empire--a process whose results were
proved unfortunate in ancient Rome. As one French journal-
j ■
|ist recently wrote# "The question today is not whether the
jFrench can keep Africa, but whether they can keep France."'*'
| On the economic sphere, the attitude of France to-
I . . . . 1 .
i
wards the African territories was basically mercantilist.
iThe territories supply the mother country with raw materials
and certain tropical foodstuffs, as well as troops in time
of war. They also provide it with a guaranteed market for
its manufactured goods and capital investment. Speaking on
the economic objective, Paul Bechard, the High Commissioner
1
Robert Theobold, The New Nations of West Africa
(New York: The H. W. Willson Company, 1960), p. 38.
18
of the Republic of West Africa, said, among other things: j
^ The first goal must be production which is the basis j
I of exportation; then must come industry which makes
i possible the development of internal trade. To promote j
this development there must be created a road and rail- i
way network, ports and airfields on the one side, and j
centers of energy supply on the other. These are the
real arteries and propulsive centers of the economy.
j The simultaneous development of agricultural produc-
i tion and the creation of processing industries will
| provide the foundation of social progress and raise the
i standard of living of the West African people, which is
the supreme objective of the French Government.
i
; On the social sphere, French administrators defined
i i
i
|French policy as consisting of protection of humanity
against disease, misery, and ignorance, the raising of the
I
(standard of living by the development of technical instruc
tion, by professional education, by the growth of capacity
Ifor work, and by production. Interesting as the above may
jsound, it is doubtful if these goals were reached in the
i
few years following the second World War. For one thing,
what the government did was to provide as much of the
social infrastructure— roads, water, lighting, etc.--as
could be squeezed out of its always inadequate budget, and
j 2George H. Kimble, Tropical Africa, Vol. 2: Society
l and Polity (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1960),
jpp. 259-260.
leave the suprastructure more or less to the people con- j
i
kerned. i
i The French government was equally unwilling to
’ i
decree detribalization, and like the urbanization process, *
it added greatly to the complexities of the "civilizing
t 1
■process." (
j |
j As a nation, the French have not been unduly troubled:
i
|by the complexion of the man* s skin or by the fact and con-
|sequences of miscegenation. It is believed that both
jAfricans and Europeans were acceptable in many places on
I
jthe same basis provided that the manners and dress should
!be in keeping with the traditions of locality. This does
i
jnot imply that segregation may not exist, rather where it
appeared to exist it might be a by-product of individual
jselection and not of discriminatory law.
: II. BEFORE WORLD WAR II
Before World War II all French territories were
administered in accordance with the French imperial doc
trine of "assimilation and association." This meant that
.
the metropolitan government in Paris exercised absolute j
jcontrol over every aspect of political, economic, and ]
I
|cultural affairs of the overseas empire. In general, the
icolonies were treated as French provinces and were sub- i
i ■ i
jected to the political decisions of the metropolitan ;
I I
government. Some degree of fiscal autonomy was allowed j
with the understanding that the territories themselves paid i
jthe cost of administration. While elected advisory assem- j
i !
Iblies were permitted to review the budgets, the representa- ,
tives of the metropolitan country reserved the right to
prepare the budgets and promulgate them. !
The principle upon which the above policy was based
may be easily grasped from the following comment of General
Georges Catroux, a former Governor-General of Indo-China.
This So-called colonial or semi-colonial system was
! the logical outcome of the belief that the rights
acquired by France overseas, either by conquest or by
treaty of protectorate, conferred on France all the
prerogative of full sovereignty. It was also based on
the conviction that the low level of political, eco
nomic and social development of the indigenous popula
tion when they came under France made them incapable
of managing their own affairs without a long period of
political apprenticeship and experience in the tech
nique and principles of good administration.
I
Colonial enterprise should not be a financial burden;
on the contrary, it should be revenue producing; invest
ment should be productive, should guarantee to France a
monopoly of raw material markets, and should secure for
its imports preferential treatment.3
3
General Georges Catroux, The French Union. Inter
national Conciliation, No. 495, pp. 203-204.
Before the constitution of 1946, labor was a kind of
commodity that could be acquired at will, moved about, and
dismissed when not required. A fresh supply could always
be found by the European conscriptors or the African
chiefs. But the constitution of 1946 abolished forced
labor and gave every man the right to choose his employer
or to change him as he deemed it expedient.
III. THE FRENCH UNION
While the concept and principle of interfusion of
cultures may be held central to the history of French over
seas expansion, the specific form it has taken in Africa
today may be dated from the Brazzaville conference of 1944.
The conference decided to abandon the much discredited pre
war colonial doctrine of assimilation in favor of closer
association between France and the colonies. However, the
right of the dependencies to complete self-government or
independence was rejected. A token admission of African
representatives to the national legislature was used to
justify continuance of the centripetal character of the
French State. The spirit of the conference was given con
stitutional form in the later creation of the Union
Francaise (French Union). Defining the new imperial
, structure, the constitution of the Fourth Republic states:
I i
j The French Union is formed on the one hand by the !
| French Republic which includes metropolitan France, the I
i Overseas Departments and Territories, and on the other
j hand by the Associated States and Territories. The
I members of the French Union combine their forces for
the defence of the French Union. The Government of the
Republic coordinates these forces and directs the
defence policies.
i
Thus to create the impression that the old empire
has been voluntarily liquidated, and that the Europeans, j
Asians, and Africans are one big happy family enjoying
equal rights without distinction of race or religion the
term colony has been expunged from the French political
dictionary. Whereas the effect, if not the intention of
jthe earlier formulas, had been to train the African in such
ja manner that he should be an able and devoted auxiliary to
i
the European, the new Constitution had as its objective the
association of Frenchmen and Africans in the task of making
"the sons of these countries, co-citizens in the greater
mother country which is the French Union.
Among the colonies now designated as overseas terri
tories was the former French West Africa.
4
Jean Cappelle, "Afrique Occidentale Francaise,1 1 in
L'Encyclopedie de LfEmpire Francaise (Paris: 1949), I, 272.
The New Organs
I
Under the Constitution all French colonies and
territories were considered as France overseas, and all in
habitants were to be treated equally under the French Legal
I system as citizens.
The new organs included:
! 1. A President— the president of the French
Republic, ex officio.
I
i
2. A High Council--composed of representatives of
the Government of the French Republic and of the
I
Associated States.
! 3. An Assembly of the French Union in which repre-
! sentation was accorded to Metropolitan France on
! one hand, and to all the overseas areas taken
j together on the other. The number of its mem-
j bers is 204 of which 47 represent the Overseas
1
and Associated Territories. Of these 39 repre
sent the African Territories.
4. The French West Africa is supervised by a French
Commissioner responsible only to the French
i
| Minister of Overseas Territories and a Grand
1 Council.
„ _ —
5. Each of the eight territories (excluding Togo- i
land) has its own Governor and is financially j
I
and administratively autonomous.
6. In addition, each territory has its own elective '
!
assembly and also sends representatives to the j
Grand Council in Dakar. j
7. The people elect representatives to the various
I levels of local governments. They also elect
| ‘ i
a delegation of sixty-eight to represent them in J
Paris--twenty Senators and twenty-one Deputies
in the French Parliament and twenty-seven coun
selors in the Assembly of the French Union.
About two-thirds of the representatives are
native Africans.
In judicial and administrative regime the "Indigenat"
and forced labor were abolished, all Europeans and Africans
being subjected to the French court in penal cases.
On economic matters there were less important
instruments of economic integration than the currency con
trol which rested yith the Metropolitan authority. The
management of the main instrument for economic development,
the Fund for Economic and Social Development established
25 !
'in 1946 also rested in Paris. The Fund was commonly re- !
i
ferred to as FIDES. Its establishment was inspired by I
I
I !
motives similar to those which led in Great Britain to the j
i
I passing of the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts. The !
i
changed emphasis in the current objective of development |
was expressed in the requirement that development programs
I
should seek par priority to meet the needs of the indige
nous peoples, though they should also assist in developing
the economy of the French Union as a whole. The Terri
torial Assemblies were accorded greater voice in setting
the details of developmental plans.
j IV. THE FRENCH COMMUNITY
I The mounting African disillusionment over the work-
| . . . .
<
ing of the French Union, the emergence and pressure of new
|African political movements and the idea that the success
of the French Union could be realized on the basis of a new
ideal, all combined to precipitate the events of 1938. It
was constantly held and discussed that a community formed
between the French nation and those of the Overseas Terri
tories in which each Territory would become an independent
entity could be effected by virtue of the free determina
tion of all.
26!
Consequently, on September 28, 1958, all the eight ^
territories of French West Africa and the other members of !
i j
jthe French Union voted on General De Gaulle's new Consti-
tution. With the exception of Guinea, the opportunity
(without sacrificing its individual autonomy) of joining
| the French Assembly of Nations was extended to the member j
{States.
! Among the choices offered were: I
■ * i
I
1. Immediate independence by a negative vote in the
referendum on September 28, 1958. Only Guinea
chose this alternative.
2. The territory or territories voting in the
affirmative had the choice between them, viz.,
(a) Status as a French department,
(b) Status as an overseas territory, thus main
taining the status quo with representation
in the French Parliament and administrative
autonomy,
(c) Status as a member State of the community.
All territories of French West Africa, French Equa
torial Africa, and Madagascar chose this solution and thus
I
became separate states outside the French Republic. The
[outcome was the emergence of the New French Community
(La Communaute) which replaced the French Union as of
! October 5, 1958. The community is defined as an associ-
I
;ation of free and equal nations. With respect to the
]
I
former French West Africa, each of the territories became
autonomous republics— Dahomey, December 4; Ivory Coast,
December 4; Mali (the Soudan), November 28, and indicated
l .
a desire for full independence; Mauritania, November 28;
Niger, December 19; Senegal, November 25, and with Soudan
(Mali) in the Federation of Mali also indicated a desire
for full independence; Upper Volta, December 11; Togo,
'November 7.
! This new Constitution was characterized by two im-
jportant ideas.
1. Each territory had absolute freedom to choose
its own destiny.
2. Each was offered a Republic. Each adopted its
own Constitution early in 1959, elected its own
assembly, and formed its own government.
The community is thus founded on a multilateral con
tract between the French Republic and the member states of
the Community. Each member may at any time decide by a
vote of their assembly followed by a referendum to break
28
I
j the contract and leave the community. While each member
state enjoys complete freedom of administrative decision,
j certain specific matters such as foreign policy, defense,
economic and financial policy, and policies regarding
strategic raw materials and higher education are under the
jurisdiction of the Community as a whole.
The Community is presided over and represented by
the President of the Community who is also the President of
the French Republic. The Executive Council is presided
over by the President of the Community. The membership
consists of the premiers of all the states. The Council
meets either in Paris or in the capital of one of the other
member states.
The Senate, an assembly of 284, is composed of the
representatives of the assemblies of each of the states.
The representation is proportional to the population.
A court of arbitration settles all disputes arising among
the member states. It also rules on the interpretation or
application of the provisions of the Community. A group of
Africans are appointed as advisory ministers to the govern
ment of the French Republic on matters concerning the
Community. These may be designated as members of French
29 j
delegations to international organizations or conferences, i
I :
! The prevailing economic and social organizations j
i ;
were organized in such a way that Government had to take an |
i ;
j authoritative form. There could as yet be no question of j
self-government- However, the events in Guinea and the \
emergence of other African states provided the needed im- j
jpetus. By the end of 1960 all former French Territories in !
i ■ 1
Africa with the exception of Algeria and French Somaliland
i
became self-governing nations. ;
j CHAPTER IV
| THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT
i
I Thus far, the French have long been drawn to cen-
!
jtralized systems of rule in which legislation and legis-
i
lative institutions are the prerogatives of the authorities
in Paris. This preference continued to find expression in
some of the legislative arrangements made for the African
territories down to the birth of the French Community.
I. LEGISLATIVE GOVERNMENT
Between 1946 and the demise of the Fourth Republic
j in 1958, French Tropical Africa made considerable progress
*in the direction of greater legislative as opposed to
i
merely administrative autonomy. In 1946 territorial assem
blies were established in the territories of French West
i
Africa, Togo, and other French Africa. Under the Loi-Cadre
of June 23, 1956, which provided a framework or general
principles to be followed in developing the governmental
institutions of the overseas territories, territorial
30 __________
31
assemblies could be given the same power in internal
affairs as the legislatures in pre-independent Ghana. From
i
i
March, 1957, these assemblies were elected by universal j
i
adult suffrage on a single electoral college, and full
i
executive councils, or cabinets drawn from their members.
However, until the end of 1958 their powers could not make
them independent of Paris or its representatives in Dakar.
While the French may claim to have started their tropical
I
|territories on the road to decentralization, the fact
jremains that Paris continued to retain the power to legis
late for French Africa on many issues. It also continued
I to supply and control the capital budgets of French West
jand Equatorial Africa and other individual territories, and
i
i
to pay the cost of state services.
In 1959 two legislative bodies were set up, the
executive Council of the Community and the Court of Arbi
tration, to help the Community find its feet. The former
comprised the prime ministers of all member states and the
French ministers responsible for community affairs, and
functions as the supreme organ of the Community on the
government and administrative levels. The latter is
charged with settling any disputes that may arise between
(
321
the member states of the Community. The utility of these !
i
1 I
I new instruments could not be clearly demonstrated, for most I
i
of the Community decisions had, up to that time, been made j
i
I
by the President of the Republic. This fact partly ex
plains why the African leaders in these states have had !
i
i
(widely differing views about their future relationship with
(the Community. j
1 II. ADMINISTRATIVE GOVERNMENT
<
l
i
Central Government
The decentralization of legislative power in the
years immediately preceding the Fifth Republic did not lead
to any major departure from the traditional managerial
practice of always keeping the circumference tied to the
center. Under the Fourth Republic the chief executive in
i
each part of French West Africa had the rank of High Com-
I
missioner. As Governors-General, the High Commissioners
were the representatives of the French Metropolitan Govern
ment in their territories and the depositories of the power
of the Republic. They had the responsibility of coordi-
nating all the public services in their territories, and
exercising the supervisory powers of the metropolitan
i
i
33 |
I '
government over municipalities. Among other things they {
j 1
[were responsible for civil service appointments excepting j
j i
ithose reserved for the metropolitan control; the right to
deal directly with the ministry of Overseas France; the
defense and internal security of their territories; and the
ipower to declare a stage of siege--a power exercisable in
i
Metropolitan France only by the Assembly or the President.
| I
Each High Commissioner was assisted by a Secretary-General,
a Grand Council, and various offices and departments— -the
whole of which was referred to as the Government-General.
|
[The Government-General of French West Africa was located at
Dakar in Senegal. Togo was administered— until its
autonomy was secured in 1960— on similar basis. However,
as a trust territory, it had rather more freedom of action
than the other territories.
Each of the eight constituent territories of French
West Africa had its own Governor, secretariat, and public
i
services. Each was also divided into "Cercles” under an
administrator usually referred to as the "Commandant de
Cercle’ *--corresponding roughly to the provincial commis
sioner of the British system. Each Cercle was divided into
sub-divisions, while the latter were themselves divided
34
|into cantons. These in turn were divided into quartiers.
1 The executive powers of the overseas Governors have I
! !
ialways been small compared to those of a Governor-General, j
|
|to whose authority they are subject* Between the period
j
j 1956-58 the Governor became subject to a second authority,
|the Ministers of the elected assembly. Under the Loi-Cadre
! t
jof 1956 these ministers were given considerable executive
'as well as legislative responsibility. However, the
[Governor-General continued to work through the federal
Iservices d*Etat, which were responsible only to France.
The administrative responsibilities of the terri-
torial assembly were subordinate to those of the Grand
jcouncil of the Government-General. Thus the Grand Council
decided the basis of assessment of all taxes while the
t
^territorial assembly decided only the actual rate at which
the territorial taxes were to be levied. It was also the
Grand Council that (rather than the territorial assembly)
disposes of all development money provided by such metro
politan agencies as FIDES, and had the responsibility of
seeing that all development so financed was satisfactorily
executed. In late 1959 few significant changes were made
in the administrative machinery of the French Community,
35
,but most of them amounted to little more than changes of
i
name and personnel.
I Local Government
| To govern any one of the large tropical African
I
jterritories is to govern a multiplicity of groups occupying
!different parts of that territory. Thus, the basis of
!
effective government in such territories is effective local
\
(government. But the French approach to the problem of
i
jlocal government, as Lord Hailey says, has always had dif-
i
|ficulty in conceiving "of any better destiny for the
1
j African people than that they should absorb the culture and
i adopt the institutions of France, which had for the African
not a comparative but a positive value."-*
Since French government was, and still is, predi
cated on strength at the center, it was only natural that
those trained in its ways should have sought to follow the
same in Africa. This may be seen in the role allotted by
the French to the institution of chieftaincy. When the
chief spoke or acted, he did so in the name of the Com
mandant de Cercle and with his knowledge and approval.
c
Lord Hailey, An African Survey. Revised 1956
(London: Oxford University Press, 1957), p. 543.
’Commonly he was little more than a bit player who did the [
I
unwanted village chores. Over the years many adminis- |
i I
!trators sought to exploit more fully the potential of j
i
jchieftaincy. According to Robert Delvignette, formerly |
I i
I High Commissioner of the French Cameroons, what was needed '
■ I
was ’ ’ not to re-establish the chiefs, but to establish them, i
i
[Not to re-establish them in a social structure that is j
I l
; dying, but to establish them in a modern Africa that is
i
! g
Ibeing bora."
To those who criticized it for its standard, the
!administration usually pointed out that neither the chiefs
nor their partisans among educated Africans appeared to be
greatly interested in being anything but consultants to the
i
j administration and guardians of their tribal custom. From
!1953 onward, their legal status was that of auxiliaries of
the administration, scarcely distinguishable, at many
points, from that of the civil servants. Over the past
generation the trend has been toward democratizing of local
government, and the suppression of the indigenous systems
where they existed, by systems of French patronage.
£
Freedom and Authority in French West Africa
(London: Oxford University Press, 1950), p. 81.
37
In the more economically and socially advanced parts
of the French Community, local governments underwent a i
i
remodeling process. The main instruments used for the pur
pose have been the Commune de Plein Exercice, the Commune
de Moven Exercice, and the Commune Rurale. Each operates
on a township basis, and each represents an attempt to
i
accormnodate the demands of government to the economic,
isocial, and political circumstances of those to be governed.
Commune de Plein Exercice. This is modeled on the
metropolitan municipal commune. It is run by a democrati
cally elected body, headed by a democratically elected
mayor who is its chief executive. As late as August, 1954,
there were only forty-four municipalities in the whole
jFrench Sub-Saharan Africa to which the French National
Assembly was willing to grant the full exercise of munici
pal powers.
Commune de Moven Exercice or Commune Mixte. This
instrument provides for either an elected or a nominated
council headed by an officially nominated mayor. It may be
set up in any locality--rural or urban--which on the recom
mendation of the chief executive of the territory and by
ivote of the territorial assembly, is judged to be suffi-
^ t
ciently advanced to provide itself with adequate revenues. I
I 1
i Such communes may be advanced to the rank of communes de ]
I I
!plein exercice by the same procedure after a period of five |
' I
i i
|years.
j The Commune Rurale. The commune rurale is the j
[newest and most experimental of the three, and represents
I I
jan attempt to cultivate French democracy at the bush-roots
of African society. The councils are elected by universal
suffrage and the areas served by them are much larger.
Each type of commune derives its revenues from
licenses and fees, particularly market fees. Each is em
powered to levy a local rate. Each type also receives from
i ■
jthe territorial government a part of all direct taxes
|levied in the area.
In conclusion it may be said that the Constitution
of 1946 notwithstanding, the form of justice practiced in
French Africa remained a careful blend of the French code,
indigenous custom and, where it applies, Koranic law. In
the civil realm it is probably no less true to say that of
the three, the French code was the least important, for the
African was more likely to prefer the other two.
] CHAPTER V j
: I
FINANCES OF FRENCH WEST AFRICA
The sources of tropical African investment capital
1 I
are private and public, domestic and overseas. Reliable i
! ■
jestimates of the capital derived from each of these sources (
are hard to come by. Apart from uncertainties arising from J
i
the use of different national criteria of what is private
jand public investment, there are those arising from the
jinadequacy of the published data, domestic and overseas.
| In the territories of the French Community, the
i
|ratio of private to public investment has fallen, largely
'because public financing within and outside the various
territorial development plans has been unprecedentedly high
(about 125 billion CFA francs in French West Africa for the
period 1947-1954). While the contribution of domestic
capital to the total internal investment is growing, it is
still small. The long term trend has been in the direction
of a lower ratio of private to public investment. Among
Jthe reasons for this Leduc names the following:
' i
40
1. Risk and difficulties inherent in large tropical
i
enterprise.
2. High costs and long delays before enterprise
becomes self-supporting. '
3. Political instability and the cautiousness of
prospective investors.^ i
The sources of public investment capital are:
1. Domestic savings effected through ordinary
government budgeting and through profits after
amortization, etc., of public agencies.
2. Development funds, financed for the most part by
metropolitan government and other overseas
powers.
Domestic
The low average level of incomes places limit on the
amount of public saving that can be done. The budgeting
revenues by contemporary Western standards can only be
termed modest.
I. PUBLIC INVESTMENT
7
Kimble, op. cit., II, 396.
41
'Overseas 1
J Since 1945, the search for development projects and
the supply of funds with which to get them started have
both been stepped up. In French West Africa, public funds
have been the most important source of investments. Pri
marily this has meant FIDES, supplemented by funds from the
;
1 federal and territorial budgets and Metropolitan invest
ments. During the period 1947-1952 the total of public
funds invested in French West Africa from the foregoing
sources amounted to approximately 224 billion Metro francs.
Investments by the Metropolitan government have been de-
|voted chiefly to means of communication and come to about
i
120 billion. In addition, the French Treasury, through
i
|CCFOM supplied capital for companies of mixed economy and
loans to private enterprise totalling some 7 billion
I
:francs. Table I shows that emphasis is given to provision
of basic services such as transportation and conanunication,
and public utilities such as electricity and pipe water.
II. PRIVATE INVESTMENT
While the relative importance of private capital has
decreased in the postwar years, the actual amount of
42!
TABLE I
GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE UNDER DEVELOPMENT PLANS,
FRENCH WEST AFRICA, 1947-1956
Main Categories Per cent
Transport and Communications 45
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing 15
Electricity and Water 4
Education 4
Housing and Town Planning 1
Health 5
Commerce and Industry 3
Miscellaneous--mainly Public Works 23
Total Development Expenditure 100
SOURCE: Statistical and Economic Review (London:
United African Company, Ltd., March, 1958), p. 22.
|private investment has increased steadily in some and al
most leveling off in others. In general, the postwar years
i
saw a big change in the investment picture owing to the
expenditure of vast sum® in carrying out the Plan for
Modernization and Equipment. However, private capital re
mained cautious and has supplied only a small part of the
total funds invested in French West Africa since 1946.
Professor Leduc calculates the amount of public money
invested in the Federation and Togo from the beginning of
the Plan’s execution in 1947 through September 1954 at
/
about 250 billion Metro francs and that of private capital
J
during about the same period at a maximum of 14 billion.
Regardless of the degree of accuracy of those figures,
which is hard to establish, the State’s example has ob
viously not stimulated private investors to follow suit as
it was hoped would be the case.
Domestic
The domestic supply of private investment money is
small. According to Leduc, savings bank deposits in French
g
Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff, French West
Africa (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957), p. 272.
44
,West Africa and Togo at the end of 1954 totaled 697 million
\
i
francs CFA or about $3.5 million, at the end of 1957 it was
slightly less, 674 million francs. Of this amount not less |
i
than 8 per cent belonged to African depositors. The amount
of non-African savings invested domestically is also small
yet far from being negligible. Leduc estimated that in
(French West Africa the deposits in savings banks amounted j
to 140 million francs CFA at the end of 1954, those in
commercial banks amounted to 95 per cent of the total.
Various reasons have been cited to explain this tardy and
small-scale effort. Among them are:
1. The lowness of the average income level.
2. The ingrained conservatism and self-interest
| prudence of French private capital.
i
3. The anaemic state of France's postwar economy.
4. The long time required for state funds to
i
pioneer long-term enterprises.
5. The fact that temporary French residents prefer
to send most of their savings to the mother
country.
6. The fear that political instability would follow
the creation of representative institutions in
Africa.
7. The continuing uncertainty in regard to the
I
! Q
1 CFA franc rate.
I
I
!Overseas
I
The chief source of private investment money is the
jincorporated companies. In 1950 a change for the better
j set in and considerable amounts of capital started coming
in from France and North Africa. Moreover, the payment of
jan appreciable proportion of war-damage claims were made
!contingent upon their reinvestment in a French Union terri-
I
Itory. At the same time the Metropolitan and Federal
!
jgovernments began taking steps to attract private capital
| both domestic and foreign. Such measures were aimed
jprincipally at industrial production, transportation, and
jlightening the fiscal burdens on economically productive
(
enterprises. Leduc has been able to show that after World
War II a notable amount of corporate savings was reinvested
locally. He estimated that from 1947 through 1953 an
average of 31 per cent of capital investment came from
*
I
jaccumulated reserves— 7.2 billion francs (CFA) out of 23.2
'billion.10
9Ibid., pp. 272-277.
| ^Kimble, op. cit., p. 400.
Meanwhile, a more liberal credit policy was adopted
|and foreign currency exchange arrangements were made, but
!
their effectiveness has been undermined by the continuing
instability of the Metro franc to which the CFA is pegged,
iFrom the fiscal viewpoint, the French government has done
little more than intervene when its own revenues or those
i
-of powerful Metropolitan companies have been threatened,
I '
land it has left to the French West African administration
and the territorial assemblies the taking of such steps as
they could afford to lighten the tax burden that weighed
heavily on new enterprises in the Federation. Beginning in
1952, certain measures were undertaken by the Federal
government to attract both French and foreign capital in
vestment. Six Loi-Cadre decrees of November 18, 1956
offered private capitalists the first official guarantees
against some of the risks involved in overseas investments.
Such companies would enjoy special fiscal advantages, and
their shareholders would be guaranteed a minimum dividend
by the State. That West Africa’s new premiers are not
satisfied with those measures was indicated by Sekou Toure.
In June 1957 he pointed out that the trading companies
which had for many years made huge profits in Africa did
not participate financially in the industrial development
of the country.
; i
III. CURRENCY AND BANKING I
Before December 1945, the French monetary system ,
!
I
prevailed throughout the Federation, apart from remote
!
areas where goods were bartered, or cowrie shells were |
still the medium of exchange. Though issued locally by the
i !
Banque de L'A.O.F. (BAG), the Federation's franc had the
i
same value as the franc circulating in France and in other t
parts of the French empire. On the ground that the eco
nomic consequences of the war justified a sharp devaluation
|of the national money in France but not in Black Africa
{three different monetary units were set up by a decree of
■December 25, 1945. French West Africa was among the group
for which the new CFA (Colonies Francaises d'Afrique) franc
{was established. At the same time the CFA franc's value
was fixed at 1.70 in relation to the Metro franc until
i
October 17, 1948, when a single CFA franc was made equiva
lent to two Metro francs. Three successive devaluations of
the French franc (January 26, 1948, April 27, 1949, and
{September 19, 1949) involved the CFA franc to which it
[
'remained pegged. Each of the changes aroused opposition
in French West Africa, but the most deeply resented was
{that of December, 1945. After 1949, prices rose and trade
j
I in West Africa was freed from most of its wartime controls, j
Many merchants in the Federation profited by the Metro-CFA |
|franc relationship to impose excessive mark-ups in their j
i i
prices, with the result that the already high cost of
[French articles was doubled to the African consumer. On
I
[August 8, 1949, the CFA franc was given access to the full
i
l
market of Paris and was able consequently to adjust its
foreign exchange rates. The local result was a rise in the
i
|cost of imports from the dollar and sterling zones, but it
;also stimulated the Federation’s exports to those areas.
I
i The first French West Africa’s bank, the Banque du
Senegal was established in 1853. In 1901 it was liquidated
to make way for the Banque de L’A.O.F. (BAO) initially
capitalized at 50 million francs of which 30 per cent was
held by the Federal government. Although it was a com
mercial bank, the BAO was given the exclusive privilege
of issuing paper currency for French West Africa, and it
soon set up branches in the coastal colonies. It was the
sole banking enterprise in the Federation until 1924, when
the Parisian Banque Commerciale Africaine was established.
49 j
t
Later, emerged the Banque Franpaise de L'Afrique. The
near-bankruptcies of these banks during the depression dis- 1
i
icouraged further similar enterprises in French West Africa ;
|until the threat of World War II in 1939 necessitated the
establishment of one Belgian and three Metropolitan banks
in various parts of the Federation. The French banks were
the Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et LfIndustrie, the j
Societe Generale, and the Credit Lyonnais, all of which
I
have expanded their branch network since the war. Curiously
enough, it was not until May 1955 that banking business in
the Overseas Territories was regulated by law. In 1949 the
monopoly held by BAO to issue bank notes expired, and there
was considerable agitation against and for its renewal.
i
!Few attempts were made by Africans in the Ivory Coast and
I
'Dahomey to found their own banks. These were to be supple-
! '
imentary to the network of savings banks being organized
I
jthroughout French West Africa. By 1938 there were in the
Federation 121 such banks. In 1949, the first bank founded
with African capital was opened at Treichville (Ivory
Coast). Five years later, the Banque du Benin was set up
at Cotonou. But this bank, like the more recently estab
lished Credit de la Cote d’Ivoire and Credit de la Guinee,
J
50,
j
is not an all African enterprise, but a mixed company in
j
'which public funds have supplied the majority capital. I
i
IV. BUDGET !
The budget of French West Africa presents a confused
division of financial responsibility involving a Federal
budget and separate budget for each territory, some munici-
I
palities, the main seaports and railroads, and special
accounts for the Plan and the Public Works and Loans Fund.
|The Federation's first special budget was set up in 1903 to
I
Jhandle a series of loans made by France to develop West
! Africa's public works. In 1938 the loans budget was re-
i
j placed by a special public works budget. After 1946 many
of the operations it had been financing were taken over by
,
jthe Plan through FIDES. Similarly, some of the supple-
i
mentary budget created earlier underwent various meta
morphoses .
In appearance, all French West Africa's budgets are
regularly balanced. In the case of the Federal budget,
however, this is achieved through France's contribution
toward its expenditures. As for the territories it is done
jby the device of rebates and subsidies, which are adjusted
each year to meet specific contingencies as they arise.
Since the war, the Federal budget has grown steadily,
I
jchiefly because of successive devaluations of the franc and
ithe increase in local costs. Only a comparatively small
i
part of this increase is traceable to expansion of French
|West Africa*s foreign trade. However, the Federal budget
*
i
continued to expand until 1951 when the fall in world
prices for French West Africa's exports and a concurrent
rise in the charges on equipment loans emptied its reserve
funds and required drastic retrenchment.
In general, French West Africa’s revenues depended
I
mostly on custom duties, sales tax on certain commodities,
business transaction taxes, registration fees and stamp
duties. The 1952 budget marked the end of the postwar
period of financial ease for the territories. Although
France had taken over some of the Federation*s obligatory
expenditures in 1948, this did not offset the rise in
operating and other expenditure in the development programs
of the entire area. Between 1948 and 1953 operating costs
of the Post-Telephone-Telegraph Service increased fourfold,
those of the Mobile Health Service fivefold, and those of
the Security Services doubled. By 1938 personnel absorbed
52
about 38 per cent of the Federation's total expenditure and
in 1952 it took 60 per cent.
The postwar changes in the Federal budget have had
repercussions on the individual territorial budgets, which
so far have fared less well than before. Although their
burdens were lightened in 1942 by the transfer of some of
their charges to the Federal budget, they were at the same
time deprived of the income they had until then received
from indirect local taxation. For many years the terri
torial budgets have been responsible for expenses of local
administration and the economic enterprises under the
territory. But in 1945 they were made responsible for
their own services of Social Welfare, primary education,
and agricultural development. To meet these expenses the
territories have relied on small and rigid sources as
direct taxes, of which the most important is the minimum
fiscal (formerly called the head tax, or animal tax, accord
ing to the region), the "import cedulaire," commercial
patents and licenses, business, real estate, professional
taxes, and the "taxe vicinale." In a poor country as
French West Africa an increase in the head tax hurts the
territory’s economy and also the chances for re-election.
Direct taxation is so inadequate and inelastic that the
I <
'territories must get from the Federal budget each year j
!subsidies and rebates to meet their recurrent expenses. In
ipractice this has meant robbing Peter to pay Paul--taking
|
from the wealthiest (Senegal and Ivory Coast) to give to j
i
the poorest (Niger, Upper Volta, Mauritania, Dahomey, Mali,
Soudan). ;
i " *
! So far French West Africa's fiscal policy has not
I
been clearly established for new trends have developed
j
jsince the representative assemblies acquired limited power
|over budgets and since the Plan has been reoriented toward
! increased production. Despite the country's growing pro-
i
Jduction and exports over the past decade, the finances of
Jthe Federation and most of the territories have been going
j
i
ifrom bad to worse. In 1955, only the Federal budget
i
jregistered a surplus of about 500 millions, while the
budgets of the rich coastal territories ended the year in
[debt. While the condition of the hinterland territories
I .
iappeared more sound their reserve funds were exhausted and
1 the contribution they could make toward their own develop
ment was practically nil. The year 1956, however, saw
11
Thompson and Adloff, op. cit., pp. 290-291.
54
i I
'a reversal of this situation, as the position of the terri- i
i
Jtorial budgets improved while that of the Federal budget I
| I
ideteriorated. This was partly due to the decline in the (
i
i I
!volume of imports and custom duties and partly to the !
initial transfer of income from export duties to the terri- J
N *
I
itories. Ironically, this foreshadows the administrative
i
decentralization envisaged in the Loi-Cadre passed on
June 23 of that year. On the whole, the budget of French
West Africa during the period of this study reflects a
transitory attitude regarding the division of revenues and
expenditures between the Federation and the territories.
They also indicate the leanness of the fiscal measures.
If the productivity and revenues of the country were in
creasing, its expenditures were certainly rising more
rapidly. Assuming the poverty of the French treasury, what
is needed is a sharp increase in the productivity of French
West Africa for more permanent financial salvation.
V. SOURCES OF DEVELOPMENT FUND
The two main agencies through which metropolitan
France has dispensed aid to its overseas territories are:
(1) FIDES (Fonds dr Investment pour le Development
55
lEconomique et Social), and (2) CCFGM (Caisse Centrale de la
France d* Outre-Mer). Since 1959 this has been called
|Caisse Centrale de Cooperation Economique or CCCE.
The Credit Nationale, one of France*s state banks,
J
has also granted medium and long-term loans to private
f
[companies in the overseas territories.
FIDES
i
! The postwar General Plan for Modernization and
Development of the French Overseas Territories was set in
motion by the law of April, 1946. This law created the
FIDES. The objective was the financing of public develop
ment plans in all French Overseas territories. To the
FIDES France would supply funds in the form of outright
jsubsidies through small annual allocations from the Metro-
tpolitan budget. To it also the territories themselves
i
I
would contribute. The management of FIDES affairs was en
trusted to a committee of directors made up of six offi
cials, four parliamentarians, and two technical experts.
i
jit was to be chairmanned by the Minister of Overseas
i
France. The grants made by FIDES have covered virtually
the whole cost of a given overseas development. They have
ialso been made to state controlled and mixed companies
56
as well as to the territorial governments. The expendi-
i
jtures by FIDES during 1947-1958 are summarized in Table II.
I
CCFOM
\
| CCFOM was created during the war, and was empowered
ito handle not only the FIDES accounts, but also to grant
I
;long-term loans at low interest rates (2.2 per cent) from j
j !
'other funds given it directly by the government. The
i
t
jCCFOM*s resources like those of FIDES have been supplied
jwholly by the French Treasury. They consist of the initial
jgrant of about $8.4 million supplemented by annual credits
jvoted by the Parliament. The amount of these advances
jvaried considerably— about $56 million in 1954, and only
!
$14 million in 1956. Though the main objectives of FIDES
and CCFOM are the same, the former has specialized in
supplying funds for public works and the latter has granted
loans to municipal governments, chambers of commerce,
private enterprises, and above all, to companies of mixed
economy and state companies. Among the private enterprises
assisted by CCFOM in 1957 included the Societe Fria which
is developing bauxite deposits in the Republic of Guinea.
The CCFOM*s loans have usually been for short terms (five
to ten years) at an interest rate of 5.5 to 7 per cent,
57
TABLE II
TOTAL APPROPRIATION AUTHORIZED BY FIDES
IN FRENCH TROPICAL AFRICA, 1947-1958
Territory
Appropriations
(Millions) Per cent
French West Africa $ 984 46
French Equatorial Africa 428 20
French Cameroons 364 17
Malagasy Republic 300 14
(French) Togo
• >
43 2
French Somaliland 21 1
Total 2,140* 100
*Made up as follows:
"General Section" grants $305 million;
"Overseas Section” grants $940 million;
"Overseas Section” loans $445 million;
CCFOM Loans funds $450 million.
SOURCE: French Africa: A Decade of Progress. 1948-
1958 (New York: French Embassy, Service de Presse et
d1Information, 1958).
I
58
and have been granted only to enterprises of general in
terest unlikely to be financed by private capital. This
proved more profitable for it.
VI. THE TEN YEAR GENERAL PLAN (1946)
There were two main objectives in this plan:
1. To provide the infrastructure, especially trans
portation, needed for subsequent economic and
social developments. More than half of all
developmental expenditure during the period
1946-1952 went into ports, railways, roads, and
airfields. Host of the rest went into hospitals
and schools, mining and industrial installations
particularly (hydroelectricity), agriculture,
and research.
2. To promote enough revenue-earning schemes to
meet the heavy operation and maintenance costs
of this infrastructure. While the constitu
tional relationship of the Overseas Territories
to Metropolitan France has changed greatly since
1946, this objective is still being energeti
cally pursued.
The plan was also divided into two sections, general
and overseas. The general one, wholly subsidized by the
Metropole, included scientific research; state companies or
those of mixed economy, in which private as well as public
funds were involved; and projects which either would be of
direct interest to the Metropole or would concern two or
more territories. The second or overseas section comprised
'projects of specific interest to a territory or federation
|of territories, and these were required to be of general
public utility or to aid production or social development.
At the start, the Metropolitan contribution to the Overseas
Plans was 55 per cent, the territories being obliged to
find the balance. In 1953, the contribution was increased
to 75 per cent and in 1956 it was still increased to 90
per cent.
From the outset the execution of the plan ran into
practical obstacles and deliberate attempts to deflect it
from its basic purpose. Delays resulting from the slow
delivery of machinery and other equipment ordered from
abroad were in some instances capped by the discovery that
ithey were unusable after they had arrived. Furthermore,
|insufficient preliminary study was in part responsible
60 |
for this waste, but the directorate of FIDES was also I
I
charged with having ignored or gone counter to the advice j
of the local bodies which it was under the legal obligation j
to consult. A case in point was the allocation of 400 mil- |
lion francs by the FIDES authorities for the building of
|a paper factory near Abidjan in the face of an adverse '
1 I
Ireport on this project made by experts in 1946. Africans
i
iincreasingly resent having an ever-smaller voice in the
J
allocation of funds for the specific projects to be under-
5
itaken, the division of credits between territories and the
i
1
i
; priorities accorded to general categories of enterprises.
1
J
| For French West Africa they wanted a program in which
(native affairs rather than Metropolitan interests would be
the primary yardstick. Under the influence of such con
siderations the plan was progressively altered. On Decem
ber 11, 1951, a decree was issued which set up the second
four-year plan--1952-56. This ran counter to the law of
1946. Its new aim was to increase both agricultural and
industrial production in the perspective of European Com
munity. No mention was made of raising the social level of
the overseas populations, nor were their aspirations taken
into account. Actually this directive relegated the
61
economy of the overseas territories to the position it had
'held under the Colonial Pact— that of a producer of raw
materials needed by European industry. Moreover, it gave
i
'rise to the suspicion that Western European defense con
siderations were playing a major role in determining the
i
new policy. The decree produced a strong adverse reaction
i
in French West Africa and in the French Union Assembly.
'This took the form of a forceful resolution adopted on
i
j May 27, 1952, urging the government to modify its program
|to accord with the spirit of the April 30, 1946 law.
I
[Nevertheless, the government persisted in its policy.
-While some concessions were made to the well-nigh universal
^plea for a greater stress on production, it was to the
mining, electrical, and processing industries rather than
for improvement of the African rural economy that addi
tional grants were made. Even so, the lion*s share went to
the big companies and urban public works and very little
was given to organizations directly aiding the indigenous
i
L
farmer and herder.
CHAPTER VI
i
AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND TRADE
i
I The resolution passed at the Brazzaville Conference
I
early in 1944 embodied some important trends that were to
dominate French policy toward its Tropical Africa in the
postwar years. One was a condemnation of the so-called
principles of Colonial Pact by which the dependencies were
regarded as existing mainly for the benefit of the mother
country; and the second strongly favored a planned economy
both as regards production and distribution. In regard to
(agriculture, they proposed that improved tools be widely
Idistributed to African farmers, soil conservation and
i
I
(Utilization to be studied, and a central institute of
I
lAfrican research be set up. As to industrial development
jthe resolutions were more conservative. While it was
agreed that the government would have to pioneer certain
enterprises, the sponsors wanted private initiative eventu
ally to dominate this field. Tariff barriers would be
required to protect Tropical Africa*s nascent industries,
62
63 |
but the legitimate economic interests of the Metropole must|
also be safeguarded. !
!
i i
I. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
Agriculture has been the principal occupation of the
rural economy and prior to the introduction of commercial
crops into West Africa it held first place in its economy.
i
But since the beginning of the twentieth century the Afri
can farmer has been caught up in a commercial system that
has broken the narrow circle of his traditional system.
Today both Africans and Europeans are farmers, and while
the former is engaged in peasant cultivation the latter
employs paid labor or a company which possesses some
capital for cultivation as well as for processing commodi
ties. Through some pressures both from within and without
African farmers have been induced to cultivate industrial as
well as subsistence crops.
In French West Africa there are considerable banana
I
j
plantations but much of the banana grows wild throughout
the forest zone. Most of the plantations are owned by
European planters especially in Ivory Coast. Europeans and
Africans share in the production. In the two territories
64 |
i
|the total of banana plantations increased from 3,400 j
{hectares before the last war to some 4,600 hectares in 1954 i
i *
; i
and by mid-1956 it had reached nearly 6,000 hectares in
Guinea.
Cassava (Manioc) has an average annual production
of between one and one and one-half million metric tons.
I
{Government's effort to increase its production in Niger
Lhows a rise of from 20,500 tons in 1950 to 104,000 in
i
11955. In Togoland there has been some export of tapioca
Jmade from the cassava root.
I Along with other countries of West Africa--Ghana and
Nigeria--the Ivory Coast of French West Africa is now ex
porting increasing quantities of cocoa.
During the past fifteen years the cocoa plantation
has more than doubled in Ivory Coast rising from about
;80,000 hectares in 1938 to about 180,000 hectares in 1955.
The sale is controlled in the sense that the price is offi
cially fixed and purchase is restricted to the authorized
centers.
Coconut flourishes along the West Coast notably on
the littoral of Dahomey which is also the chief producer in
French West Africa. However, export did not exceed 800
metric tons in 1951 and fell to 400 in 1952. Copra exports
also showed a gradual increase until 1951 when they reached
i
|6,200 metric tons but they decreased in 1952 to 2,300 tons.
I
iThese decreases result from competition from other West
African countries, especially British West Africa.
The cultivation of coffee was undertaken in French
West Africa in 1928. Until then, it grew spontaneously.
The crop is grown by Europeans and Africans, but the latter
has shown a steady increase in recent years. Ivory Coast
is the chief producer in French West Africa accounting for
90 per cent of the Federation’s coffee exports. Both
Guinea and Dahomey trail behind. In 1947, a Coffee Re
search Center for French West Africa was set up in Ivory
Coast. By 1953 the French Union had become the third
|largest coffee producer in the world with Ivory Coast as
|the biggest exporter.
| The production of cotton is of less importance to
French West Africa and is practically confined to the
irrigated lands in the Niger basin. The total production
from French West Africa in 1952 was estimated at 7,000
metric tons of cotton lint, with an export of 2,100 tons.
In Togoland, the average export is between 1,500 and 2,000
metric tons.
i
I
66;
i !
Citrus fruit plantations have been cultivated in
i
I
'Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Mali, but the production
i
iis yet small. Guinea is noted for oranges and Ivory Coast |
for lemons. Citrus fruit cannot compete in the Metro-
: i
[politan Market with the more abundant and advantageously i
i \
[located supply from North Africa. j
The groundnut (peanut) is indigenous to Brazil, and j
I
I is believed to have been introduced to Africa by the Portu
guese. French West Africa was for many years the leading
exporter of this crop in Africa though in the years 1948 to
jl950 the average figure (218,600 metric tons) fell short of
i
jthat of Nigeria (264,600 metric tons). Senegal is the
Iprincipal source. There is some production in the Repub
lics of Mali and Niger, but that in the Haute Volta is
;declining on account of overproduction and soil deteriora-
i
jtion. A research station at M'Bambey is supported by the
FIDES as is also an experimental area for mechanized
production of the crpp at Kaffrine. French Togoland ex
ported some 3,700 metric tons in 1952.
Maize (com) is one of the crops mostly grown in
Africa south of the Sahara. In French West Africa it is
iless important food crop than millet, though in 1952
67]
the gross production was estimated at 492,000 metric tons.
The crop is most important in Dahomey. Since World War II
i
t
the export has fallen off because the rice imports made it
necessary to keep the maize in the country.
Millets of various species were the principal cereal
grown in tropical Africa before the introduction of maize
and the total area under this crop is still much larger
than that of maize. In French West Africa millets are the
staple food throughout the drier northern areas and also in
the palm belt in Dahomey. In 1952, the crop was estimated
to yield 2,614,000 metric tons.
Unlike the peanut, the oil palm is indigenous to
West Africa and Central Africa. In French West Africa the
principal producing areas are the Ivory Coast, Guinea, and
Dahomey. The export in 1952 was 9,492 metric tons of oil
and 64,200 of kernels. Attempts have been made to improve
the palm groves in pursuance of researches made by the
Institut de Recherches pour le Huiles de Palme et les
Oleagineux (IRHO) at La Me in the Ivory Coast and in Pobe
in Dahomey. It is also the subject of research at Adio-
podoume in Ivory Coast which might become the chief center
of French agricultural studies. Eight factories for
68 |
<
treating the oil have been erected in Dahomey and the Ivory
1
Coast. In French Togoland the oil palm is an important ,
i ' I
source of income in the southern section. Mechanical
crushers have now been provided by the local Societes de
i
Prevoyance and a modern processing factory was built near j
i
Lome in 1950. j
j Rice is a staple food of the coastal populations, !
i I
]and there is an increasing consumption by the labor force ■
i
j in mining areas. It is one of the main objectives of the
]Sansanding irrigation scheme on the Middle Niger. In 1951
i
production in the Niger was at the rate of 25,000 tons
annually but this yield is low. The total production in
French West Africa from all sources is estimated at between
i
|53,000 and 545,000 metric tons of paddy.
J Although tea is still only in the experimental
I
stage, its production in French West Africa--chiefly for
export— is thought to have a rosy future. Since 1959 the
Federal Agricultural Service has been experimenting with
tea production at Seredou in Guinea, and in 1952 it started
a pilot plantation with 350 bushels.
In French West Africa coarse tobacco is grown by
Africans for their own use, but it was not until 1942 that
i
the growth of the crop for export was entirely taken up by
! European planters. Important areas of production are
Guinea (650 tons, 1952), Ivory Coast (680 tons, 1951), and
Dahomey (400-500 per year). The administration is en
couraging the companies to develop tobacco as a secondary
source of income for African farmers, but is trying to
prevent its being produced to the detriment of food crops.
With few exceptions the wheat grown is the product
of European farms. Along with barley it is grown in the
Sahara zones, but the biggest producing region is that of
I the Niger Bend. In 1955, a small-scale experiment in
(scientific wheat cultivation was undertaken at Dire. On
i
i
I the other hand, wheat import has risen since 1946.
i
I
j The future of animal husbandry in the Federation is
considered hopeful and some program tinder the Plan is ex
panding the work already accomplished to develop this
source of West African wealth. As of 1954, investments
made since the war in French West Africa1 s animal husbandry
from the Federal and territorial budgets amounted to
1,100 million CFA francs and those from FIDES for the
i
1947-57 period came to almost 4.5 billion CFA francs. In
January 1956, the Federal Inspector-General of Animal
Husbandry reported French West Africa’s cattle population
as being 10 million; sheep and goats, 20 million; horses,
i 1
i296,500; donkeys, 903,500; camels, 553,000; pigs, 340,000;
; 1
'poultry, 18 million; and guinea hens, 2 million. Consider
ing the population of French West Africa, this indicates a
|relatively huge ratio of animals to the human population.
i
IThe Niger, Mauritania, Upper Volta, Mali, and Senegal con- i
i
tain two-thirds of all the herds in French West Africa.
: More attention has been given to the breeding of sheep
1
especially by the Dire Company. The training of teachers
i
for rural schools is given at two centers in Mali and
I
^Guinea. Table III gives the output, imports, and exports
tof selected crops in French West Africa for the period
1955-1957.
i
i
i
II. INDUSTRY AND MINING
I
For a long time the local industry was limited to
the semi-processing of agricultural products needed by the
Metropole, and to a few workshops for the maintenance of
transport industries. The only truly indigenous industries
were those of African artisans. In fact, French West
Africans have done outstanding work in iron, clay, copper,
71
! TABLE III
1
FRENCH WEST AFRICA: OUTPUT, IMPORTS, AND EXPORTS
OF SELECTED CROPS, AVERAGE 1955-1957
(Thousands of Tons)
Crop Output Import Export
Bananas 122 116
Cassava 1,858
1
Cocoa beans 73 63
Coffee beans 116 113
Cotton (lint) 5 1
Cotton Seeds 10 2
Citrus fruits 77 3
Dates 18 2
Ground nuts 1,146 272
Ground-nut oil 95
Fibres (sisal)
2 1
Sugar 89
Palm kernels 84 83
Palm oil 75 1 16
Potatoes 2 12
Maize 411 5
Wheat 2 71
Rice 684 121
Tea 1
Sesame seed 4 1
Tobacco 3 1
SOURCE: Economic Survey of Africa Since 1950 (New
York: United Nations, 1959), pp. 21-24.
| 72
gold, leather and fibres, and much of their products are
artistic in design and meticulous in execution.
The Second World War gave a big boost to Senegal*s
industrialization, especially to the oleagenous industry
whose output was encouraged partly to fill France's need
for vegetable oil and partly to supply crude fuel to the
entire Federation. In 1946 the Plan with its stress on
industrialization was enthusiastically received by the
African elite, yet only about 10 per cent of the public
fund invested in French West Africa has gone to industry.
Moreover, some of the capital so invested has a dual pur
pose. Such is the case with the new electrical projects
which aim to promote urban along with industrial develop
ment. Private and foreign capital investment have been
placed mostly in mining but in the extractive rather than
the processing aspect of that industry. In general the
raining sector is highly organized and capitalized and in
large measure it is controlled by the French government and
other financial interests. In French African territories
including French West Africa, the state has reserved to
itself the right to minerals. These are expressly excluded
from any concession of land. Hence minerals are not
73 i
I
therefore regarded as the property of the owners of the
! j
iland and mineral rights may be granted only by concession
i I
!from the State. An exception is made in the case of quar- ;
1
■ries. The tendency has been to restrict grant to parties
who can show that they have adequate financial and tech
nical knowledge. Further, there are considerable areas
|such as Upper Guinea and the region between Senegal and
(Mali, where mining rights have been reserved to the in-
I
|digenous peoples. Regarding the contribution made to pub-
I lie revenue, provision is in many cases made for profit
J sharing in which the State participates on a fixed per-
j
!centage or on a sliding scale based on the profits after
I
I
|the payment of guaranteed dividends.
|
j Since World War II more systematic efforts have been
i
|directed to the development of the mineral resources. In
1948, a special public corporation (the Bureau Minere de la
France d* Outre-Mer) with a capital of 700 million francs,
was set up to promote prospecting and mineral development.
In 1954, French West Africa had an export of minerals
valued at 1,555 million CFA francs or about 2.8 per cent
of the total export. The production and export of iron,
bauxite, phosphates, tin, titanium, and diamonds have
741
[
either come into being or are being increased since the war
i i
(see Table IV), and have swelled the value of French West I
! 1
|Africa*s foreign trade and hard currency earnings. How-
!ever, they have not proportionately enhanced the value of
the Federation's export and in fact have barely replaced
i
that of gold shipments which have now faded away. While
jgold production has declined since 1950, diamond production
jhas more than doubled since then. Known reserves of the
Jregion are estimated at about 2 million carats. The Kaloum
I
jPeninsula in Guinea possesses the world's largest known
i
I
deposit of lateritic iron ore. Probable reserves have been
estimated at about 2,500 million tons. Senegal is the
third largest producer of titanium in the world. It is
present in the form of ilmenite, 6,000 tons having been
exported since 1954. The production of calcium phosphate
was suspended in 1954 but the export of phosphate of
aluminum reached 54,000 tons in 1954 and about 100,000 in
1955. Copper mine at Akjoujt in Mauritania came into
production in 1954. It deals with both sulphide and oxide
ores. In 1953 a total of 400,000 tons of iron ore,
3,000,000 tons of bauxite, and 80,000 carats of diamond
were exported from Guinea. An important installation
TABLE IV
MINERAL PRODUCTION IN FRENCH WEST AFRICA,
1947, 1954
Mineral Unit 1947 1954
Gold
kgv
173 12
Diamonds carats 53,749 217,650
Ilmenite
- ■
tons 11,282 11,400
Zircon tons 39 918
Wolfram, Cassiterite tons 5 102
Iron ore
<
tons 580,000
Lime phosphate tons 200 15,220
i
Alum phosphate tons 655 58, 663
; Bauxite
1
tons 442,150
I SOURCE: Les
Id * Outre-Mer, No. 1),
en Afriaue (Cahiers Encvclopediaues
Paris, January, 1956.
i
i
*
i
i
76
for the production of aluminum was under construction at
i
,Kassa near Conakry which came to operation in 1957.
Table V gives the average output of the principal minerals
in the period 1955-1957.
| In 1958 the gross value of output of the principal
i
: minerals was:
i Bauxite $1,100,000
j Phosphates 500,000
i
! Diamonds 2,200,000
| Iron 800,000
i
| Others 400,000
III. TRADE
I
Although internal commerce has been intensified in
i
|recent times, the old commercial order has survived along-
i
side the new. In big towns a number of traditional markets
are held daily but in less important centers weekly or
periodic markets occur. Women do most of the selling in
markets, whereas the itinerant peddlers--Syrians, Lebanese,
or Dioulas--are men. The chief articles of long-distance
exchange are livestock and salt from the north, iron and
millet from the center, and European manufactured goods
TABLE V
AVERAGE OUTPUT OF THE PRINCIPAL MINERALS,
1955-1957
Mineral Thousands of Tons
Bauxite (crude ore) 437.1
Iron Ore 432
Gems
129
Industrial 207
Phosphate Rock 4.9
j SOURCE: Economic Survey of Africa Since 1950 (New
jYork: United Nations, 1959), pp. 33-34, 65-66.
78
from the south. Under the principle of French Colonial
Pact, the raw materials which French West Africa was en-
I
I
couraged to produce for export were those wanted by the j
I
Metropole, and the manufactured goods it received were
those selected by French industrialists and exporters. The\
latter were assured a preferred and virtually closed mar-
i
ket.
Almost invariably the big trading houses in French
West Africa have been exporters of African produce and im
porters of general merchandise. These European firms are
/
heavily capitalized, have considerable financial standing
with the banks, and are both monopolistic and monopsonist.
Of the three great trading companies known as the Grands
Comptoirs, that of the Compagnie Franoaise de L'Afrique
Occidentale (CFAO) is the oldest. It was established in
1887 at Marseille with a capital of 7 million francs, and
has its French West African headquarters at Dakar. It
exports the Federation’s produce and imports French manu
factured goods, chiefly cotton cloth. Furthermore, the
CFAO controls most of the Federation's river transport,
operates in British West Africa, and collaborates with
the Banque de L’A.O.F. and the Hirsch du Pasquier group.
79
The second great trading company is the Societe Commerciale
j I
de L'Ouest Africain, known as SCOA. It rivals the CFAO in |
I
jthe export-import business and has now surpassed it.
[Founded at Paris in 1906 with an initial capital of 3 mil- ;
lion francs, SCOA has expanded more rapidly. In associ
ation with the Banque de L*Union Parisiene, it formed the
jSociete Agricole Africaine for the development of oil-palm
t
iand banana plantation in Ivory Coast and cotton cultivation
|in the Niger. The British concern Unilever is the third
of French West Africa’s big three. Through its African
branch, the United African Company, and in conjunction with
its interests in Metropolitan France, it has formed the
!Societe Commerciale Africaine in Senegal; the Compagnie du
|Niger Francaise in Guinea and Mali; and the Compagnie
^Franqaise de le Cote d’Ivoire. Unilever has been chiefly
concerned in French West Africa with oleaginous produce,
but it also has a side interest in sea transport. The main
grievances against all these big trading companies are that
they fail to promote production in a way that is helpful
to the Federation's economy, that they try to establish
monopolies and that they repatriate their profits, thus
[leaving to the state the whole burden of development
efforts.
80
I
IV. FOREIGN TRADE j
i
] I
j I
! Before World War II the principal products exported 1
1 from French West Africa were peanuts, cocoa, gold palm
kernels, coffee, bananas, cotton, palm oil, mahogany, live- j
stock, and sisal. Expressed in United States dollars their j
total in 1938 was estimated at $40,757,000. The war first
I :
reduced all exports and then eliminated many of them, and j
lit took some years thereafter for the Federation to revive
i
jthe pre-war tonnage level of its shipments, although their
i
value was in every instance higher.
j Beginning in 1946, significant changes began to
I appear in the export picture. Oleaginous products have
i
! remained at the head of the list and France is still by far
l
jthe leading purchaser of almost all of French West Africa’s
products. As a result of the war-time developments of
processing industries, some products are no longer exported
in crude form. Increasingly, peanuts have been shipped in
I
jthe form of oil, shelled nuts, and fresh fruit exports are
[yielding to those of juice or preserves. As for gold and
sisal, these have now disappeared from export list, and
their place is just being taken by new products, for
example, bauxite and iron ores and fish. Also to some
81
'extent they are being replaced by the expansion of titanium;
i I
ore, diamonds, and kapok. Meanwhile cocoa and coffee ex-
:
ports have been forging ahead and with them the value of
Ivory Coast’s foreign trade, but at the same time that
territory’s lumber shipments have declined in value. In
general, the principal changes in the volume of exports
occurred in respect of tropical wood--which doubled between
1954 and 1958, and iron ore which increased in volume by
70 per cent in the same period. Exports of peanuts, coffee,
and cocoa also increased in volume. Changes in the pattern
of imports have also taken place. Table VI shows the
i
[changes in imports for the period beginning in 1954, show-
iing imports of energy, raw materials and semi-manufactures,
|capital equipment and consumer goods. Imports of energy
resources have accounted for a constant or diminishing pro
portion of total imports, except in Togoland where there
has been a significant rise. The steady growth of imports
into French West Africa is due more to expanded imports of
structural steel in connection with oil exploration.
Production of cement which more than doubled between 1953
(61,000 tons) and 1957 (158,000 tons) has enabled the
territory to hold its imports of cement at the 1953 level.
TABLE VI
IMPORTS BY CATEGORY AS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL VALUE,
1954-1957
Country and Year Energy
Raw Materials and
Semi-finished
Products
Capital
Equipment
Consumer
Goods
Food Other
French West Africa
1954 4 13 16 22 45
1955 4 14 19 23 40
1956 4 15 21 23 37
1957 4 16 19 24 37
Togoland
1954 5 7 11 23 54
1955 6 15 8
19 52
1956 7 26 19 20 28
1957 7 28 17 19 29
SOURCE: Ministere de France d'Outre-Mer Service des Statistique, Bulletin
Mensuel et Statistique d’Outre-Mer, Supplement serie etudes (Paris), 1958.
83
Consumer goods continue to account for the largest propor
tion of imports into French West Africa.
| Marketing and price policy in French West Africa
take different forms: A guaranteed market in France,
maximum and minimum prices for peanuts and palm oil, and
fixed producer prices for cotton and sisal. No price
|stabilization fund was established for the major export
l
jcrops until 1955 when Caisses de Stabilisation des prix
(were instituted for the export crops of individual terri
tories. These funds replaced previously existing marketing
!schemes and were to be financed by export taxes and other
jlevies. In February, 1958, a single sales organization
■was set up for marketing the peanuts of Senegal and Mali.
i ■ •
I About three-quarters of trade of the French Com
munity is conducted with the Franc area— predominantly with
France— the sterling and dollar areas account for approxi
mately 5 and 6 per cent respectively of the trade, the
remainder, with minor exceptions, being conducted with the
[rest of Western Europe. This pattern has changed only
I
!slightly since 1950.^
12
Economic Survey of Africa Since 1950 (New York:
United Nations, 1959), pp. 158-163.
CHAPTER VII
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
I
There is yet a third important factor that was em
bodied in the Brazzaville Conference which tended to domi
nate French African policy. This emphasized that African
iwelfare and interests should dominate all other consider-
t
jations. To what extent this was accomplished is difficult
|to say. However, it must be noted that significant changes
j
jwere made in some fields, while progress lagged behind in
[others.
|
I
| I. EDUCATION
Educational Policy
Of the three cardinal principles underlying public
education in contemporary France--that it be free, obliga
tory, and non-religious— only the first has been consist-
i
jently present in French West Africa*s system of education.
Since 1949, primary education in the Federation has been
theoretically obligatory, but the observance of this ruling
84
85
i
has been sharply limited in practice by the facilities
i
I
'available. Until 1903, Catholic missionaries were re-
i
sponsible for virtually all the formal instruction. In
that year the setting up of a Federal Administration in
West Africa and the separation of church and state in
France necessitated the organization of a state school
system for the whole area. The system of schools given to
French West Africa in 1903 survived until 1944 with some
modifications. After the war, emphasis was shifted from
primary to secondary and technical education.
In general, the aim of French educational policy up
till 1958 was to make worthy citizens of all the inhabit-
i
1 ants of the French possessions south of the Sahara. To
implement such an ambitious policy posed an enormous prob
lem. Such a problem is characterized by financial con
siderations, building facilities, personnel, language, and
other educational facilities. In French West Africa there
are approximately over a hundred languages and dialects,
I
jnone of which is spoken by a sufficient number of people to
jjustify an attempt to make it a lingua franca. Now that
j almost all the component parts of these territories are
I either autonomous members of the French community or
independent, some changes in their educational systems may
be expected, but what those changes will be it is yet not
easy to say.
In 1957, in the whole of French Noire— French
Tropical Africa**-about 1.2 million children out of some
5 million children of school age were enrolled in European
public or private schools. Of these only about 5 per cent
were enrolled in post-primary schools. As for French West
l
'Africa, out of a total enrollment of approximately 380,000,
only some 20,000 were attending secondary or technical
schools. Down to 1958 the only institution in the whole
area offering academic and technical training at the Uni
versity level was the University of Dakar founded in 1946.
It is probable and indeed certain that the French could
have had more schools and more children enrolled in them if
they had been so interested or if they had cared less about
quality. But they have consistently striven to maintain
metropolitan standards especially at the post-secondary
levels in the face of obvious shortcomings in these areas.
School System
In order to serve the conception of its educational
responsibility, the French government has developed various
I types of schools. At the primary level, the standard model
i 1
has been the six-grade school, the leading functions of
;
which are to make the student literate and to equip him,
according to its location, for life in the bush or in the
town. There also are many substandard schools offering |
only a two-to-three-year curriculum. At the post-primary j
level, there are technical and vocational schools, second
ary schools, higher technical schools, teacher training ,
schools, and the Uhiversity of Dakar. The technical and
vocational schools offer courses varying from three to six
years. These courses are designed ”to give young Africans
I -
greater familiarity with modem developments and techniques
in agriculture, industry, and commerce.” J Satisfactory
(completion of the three-year course wins a "certificate of
I
professional aptitude”; the longer courses, a teaching
diploma (Brevet d’Enseignement Industriel, or Brevet dfEn-
seignement Commercial).
The secondary schools offer a three-year course
leading to a certificate (Brevet d'Etudes du Premier Cycle),
and a further three-year course leading to the ”Bacca-
laureat.”
13
African Affairs (New York: French Embassy, Service
de Presse et dTInformation, 1958), p. 8.
The first is roughly equivalent to the first three
*
j <
years of high school in the American system, while the !
| !
|second corresponds with a junior at the average American
i I
University. The principal aim of these courses has been to
I
provide a cadre of youths capable of assuming responsi
bility in the public services of their respective communi
ties.
The higher technical schools offer work at approxi
mately the freshman and sophomore levels, in a variety of
subjects. Graduating students are awarded the Baccalaureat
Technique. In order to handle the postwar expansion of
primary education and the consequent demand for more
i
teachers, the government established normal schools in
various parts of the country and also introduced continu-
i
iation programs in many of the secondary schools. The mis-
Jsionaries have given considerable assistance in these
!
leases.
I
i
The University of Dakar which originated in the
postwar surge of educational interest, started as the
Institute of Higher Studies with modest facilities and very
small enrollment. In 1957, it had an attendance of 498
students and at the beginning of 1958 the figure had risen
I
I
i
\ ■ ____
to 1,069. The academic standards already bear comparison
with those prevailing in Metropolitan France.
I
j While government schools have been the norm, mission
I
i
and other private schools have enjoyed equality to some
degree provided they maintained approved standards and were
staffed by teachers with Metropolitan diplomas.
i
The schooling of girls has been the most pressing
I
! problem in French West Africa. Before the Second World War
I
i
jit was neglected by the administration while the indigenous
'population was either averse or indifferent to girls* edu
cation. In 1935, there were only 2,060 girls in the vil
lage schools and 2,309 in the regional schools, 162 in
Dakar secondary schools, and 15 in the nursing and mid-
i
iwifery section of the Dakar Medical School.^ Since the
:Second World War there has been a big increase in the edu
cational facilities for girls and in their attendance at
school. In 1955-56 the number of girls was about 35,000
out of a total of 170,000 pupils attending primary schools,
and 19,000 of the 65,000 in the mission schools were girls.
Since then the number has been increasing. However, while
14
Hailey, op. cit., p. 1263
this indicated marked progress, such advances are mostly
i
i
confined to the urban population and little headway has
been made in increasing the schooling of up-country girls,
especially in Muslim areas.
II. AFRICANIZATION PROCESS
According to Lord Hailey*
So far as the mass of the population is concerned,
l the reality of constitutional advance toward self-
j rule is judged not so much by an alteration in the
! composition of a Legislature as by the evidence that
the indigenous people are being admitted to posts of
executive responsibility. That observation is equally
i relevant to those types of Colonial Government in
j which the objective of policy does not envisage self-
| rule but the political integration of the dependency
| with the metropolitan power. **
| In general, only the British have shown the greatest
4
I
willingness and have done most to further the process of
i
j
jAfricanization. For a long time the prevailing French
[viewpoint has been that the African should not be given
heavy administrative and executive responsibilities until
he has absorbed enough French culture to be capable of ad
ministering a territory which is essentially an integral
part of the mother country. So far, most of the African
izing done by the French has been in the lower civil
15Ibid.
91 |
service grades— and here the process was well-nigh complete i
Ly the end of 1958. In French West Africa, the cadres J
i !
; i
Locaux (consisting of messengers, typists, clerks, etc.)
i
t
had been completely Africanized and the Cadres Superieurs
(chief clerks, bookkeepers, secretaries, etc.) 75 per cent
Africanized for several years. On the other hand, the j
. I
| Cadres Generaux (administrative assistants, heads of de-
>
partments, professional and technical personnel, etc.) were
no more than 25 per cent Africanized. In fact only a
...
jhandful of Africans in these cadres occupied posts of real
jresponsibility where policy decisions were made. What is
jmore peculiar is that while the number of Africans employed
jin the civil service in these territories had been increas-
i
ing steadily, the number of Europeans had also been in
creasing— and in some cases more rapidly.
III. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Adequate supplies of money and research are indis
pensable to the success of any development program. In
recent years increasingly large amounts of money have been
found by governments, educational institutions and cor
porations for tropical African research. The Directory of
92 ,
Scientific Institutes, Organizations, and Services in j
|
Africa South of the Sahara published in 1954 by the Scien- !
I ■ !
itific Council for Africa South of the Sahara lists some
i
I
|286 public and quasi-public institutions engaged in the I
! i
I area covered by this study. At present the number has in- 1
' !
creased to over 300. While some of the money appears to j
I
have fallen on barren ground, much of it is certainly per-
i
jforming impressive functions. Some of the institutes are j
i
Ihighly specialized dealing with a single field of inquiry, i
i
Others have been given much broader terms of reference.
Outstanding among these is the Institute Francaise
d'Afrique Noire, which operates in the former French West
I
! Africa including Togo. On the territorial distribution,
!sixty-five separate research organizations are listed tinder
!the same area, and sixteen under French Equatorial Africa.
I In keeping with their general approach to the busi
ness of developing overseas territories, the French have
sought to centralize their research effort. They also
preferred to let their Paris administrators settle the
strategy, if not the tactics, of all major research enter
prises. In earlier days research in the African terri-
i
jtories was carried out by Missions from the Institut
Pasteur in Paris, and the first local research organiza
tions were branches of this institute established at
St. Louis in 1896 and Brazzaville in 1910.
At present the central direction of overseas re
search is vested in the Office de la Recherche Scientifique
et Technique d’Outre-Mer (ORSTOM). Before 1955, ORSTOM
Iwas known as ORSOM, the ’ ’ Technique” being added to its
j
i
[responsibilities in that year. The ORSTOM at first con-
i
stituted a division of the Ministry of Overseas France, but
t now is part of the General Secretariat of the French Com
munity. It publishes the results achieved and keeps all
organizations concerned with the overseas research informed
16
iof the accomplishments in each territory.
Among the tasks of ORSTOM has been the training of
! corps of research workers for all the member states of the
i
French Community. Candidates for these posts are given a
two-year training course, the first year being spent at
Bondy near Paris. The second year is spent on location,
either at one of ORSTOM’s institutes such as the one
16
"Scientific Research: A Basis for Economic and
Social Progress in Africa,” African Affair (New York:
French Embassy, April, 1953), p. 1.
94
located in the Republic of Ivory Coast, or in a field
station. The capital cost of the administrative and train
ing centers set up by ORSTOM has been met from FIDES; the
i
current costs, however, have come from ORSTOM1 s own funds ~
and those of the territory concerned. A number of research
institutions were set up in French West Africa before 1943.
I
I The most important ones sponsored by ORSTOM are the Centre
jde Pedologie in Dakar-Hann (Senegal), the Centre de Geo-
i
physique in M*Bour (Senegal), and the Institut de Recherche
jdu Togo in Lome (Togo).
| Most of the agronomic forestry and animal husbandry
|research has been done on the auspices of the Services de
l1Agriculture, de lfElevage et des Forets of the one-time
Ministry of Overseas France. Most of the research work in
the field of health has likewise been done under the aus
pices of the Ministry of Overseas France. Outstanding
among the institutions supported by the metropolitan
jgovernment, but outside the jurisdiction of ORSTOM, are the
Institute Pasteur and the Institut Franqaise dfAfrique
Noire (IFAN). The former has been concerned with research
designed to relieve suffering and improve living condi
tions. The interests of the latter range over the whole
^ field of the natural and social sciences, including geo
graphy. In view of the magnitude of its task and the
i
modesty of its resources, the French government has con
sistently encouraged the establishment of privately sup
ported research centers. Some of them are concerned with
i
i
j tropical fruits, palm oil, vegetable textile and peanut
j culture.
^ It must be mentioned that the Republic of Guinea has
i
I
jhad a good deal of research work within its borders. For
Iyears prior to independence, it played host to the Centre
i
id*Etudes des Peches (Conakry), the Centre de Recherches
l
jRizicoles (Koba), the Institut Franpais D’Afrique Noire
I
J(Conakry), the Institut des Fruits et Agrumes Coloniaux
!
J(Kinda), the Institut Pasteur (Kinda), and the Section de
I
|Recherche sur le Quinquina et les Cultures des Montagne
(Seredou). It also profited from the development work
mostly unpublicized--done in the field by various govern
ment and private agencies.
i
! IV. LABOR
i
I
I
j One of the most insistent of the problems which
present themselves in the labor conditions is that of the
96
I
i shortage of manpower within reach of the major industrial j
I
centers and the consequent wide prevalence of the system of
migrant labor. In French West Africa, the working popula-
I
i
tion was given for 1947 as 232,000. Compulsory labor is
|now prohibited by an Act of April 11, 1946 and by the con
solidated Labor Code of December 15, 1952. Hitherto French
| i
iadministration had relied on the system of "Prestation” or j
{tax payable in the form of a definite amount of labor which
!was redeemable in certain cases by a cash payment; reliance
had also been placed on conscription and forced labor
especially for military purposes and on tax-default labor.
So far there has been no demand for recruiting agencies.
The Labor Regulation Code of 1952 has the objective of
I
|guiding and directing labor in the entire territory. Fur-
i
thermore, the French Labor Code contains no penal provi-
j
Is ions, but it has been suggested that the punishment of
i
vagabondage has in practice the same effect as a penal
sanction for a breach of contract. In general, the Code is
based on the principle of the equality of all French citi
zens at home and overseas, and it imposes the same stand
ards as in France, with some exceptions to meet local
circumstances. Working hours are fixed at forty per week,
but in Agriculture the maximum is 2,400 hours in the year,
!
;the distribution being determined by local regulations. |
Overtime rates are to be paid for all additional work.
i
^ Wages under this new law fluctuate with the cost of living, |
and it has been stated that in areas where labor is largely !
dependent on imported goods, the wage is not sufficient to
i
I meet minimum requirements. The advance made in the forma- j
I ^ ,
jtion of institutions of the type of trade unions has been ]
somewhat less marked. The only condition laid down for the
formation of trade unions is notification in advance, and
the Labor Code of 1952 provides that no employee shall be
dismissed for trade-union membership or activity. Further,
trade disputes must first be submitted for conciliation to
i
;the local advisory labor committee. If this fails, an
j
expert is appointed to make recommendation. It is illegal
to initiate a strike or lock-out before this procedure has
jbeen exhausted. So far little use seems to have been made
\of these provisions. • In French territories, the African
unions were either part of the labor organizations of
France, or were very closely affiliated with them. Because
of the strong political bent of the French workers’ organ
izations, Africans are much more active politically in
i the Community than in the British possessions. The African
■unions affiliated with the French Communist-oriented Con- j
1 j
federation General du Travail, are in the Communist World |
!
Federation of Trade Uhions. Those in the non-Communist
i
r
1 French Unions belong to the International Confederation of
i
Free Trade Uhions.
:
I i
! V. GOVERNMENT AND THE MISSIONS
I
I
i
I
j Since the Second World War, the attitude of the
jFrench Government toward the missionaries has mellowed.
i
i
! Among the reasons for this change were the ties that had
[developed between the free nations of the Western World,
'
the orientation of French policy toward promoting native
welfare and the creation of political institutions— which
eliminated for Africans the need to use missionaries as a
means of bringing pressure to bear on the administration.
Today all missionaries receive official subsidies for their
educational and health work in proportion to the number of
Africans they teach in their schools or treat in their
clinics. The significance of this measure has been the
increase in missionary activities in those fields; however,
'
evangelism continues to be their main preoccupation.
99!
i
: In general the relationship between the missionaries, espe- j
1cially the Roman Catholic and the Government officials, has|
j i
improved in spite of the fact that in isolated posts the
question of personal congeniality still largely determines i
their tone. For some time the Catholic missionary in
French West Africa has been most vulnerable to criticism.
The most conspicuous fault of the French missionaries is
I
!their failure to have trained a native clergy numerically j
j and qualitatively able to take over management of the
jAfrican church. During the period under study, fewer than
one hundred Africans all told were in training for the
f
(priesthood and it was not until 1956 that the first Negro
i
! bishop of French West Africa was consecrated.
i
i
I
| VI. HEALTH ORGANIZATION AND SERVICES
I
i
| The organization of public health services is par-
I
jticularly difficult because of the diversity of the cli-
jmatic regions, the dispersion of the population, and the
i --
existence of endemic diseases. The present organization of
health services in the French territories is described in
a report presented to an International Conference in 1953.
■^Hailey, op. cit.. pp. 1086-1087.
100
There is in France no central institute for dealing
j
with the problems of tropical medicines which is wholly
comparable with the London and Liverpool Schools of Hygiene
I
and Tropical Medicine, but the Institut Pasteur in Paris
exercises similar functions as a research and information
center. It has local branches at Dakar, Kinda, and Brazza
ville, which are directed from Paris but receive grants
i
from territorial funds. A peculiar characteristic of
French system is that whereas in the British territories
hospitals are regarded mainly as centers of treatment,
those in the French Africa function largely as the head
quarters of field stations whence curative and preventive
medicine is made available in rural areas.
In French West Africa there was in 1951 a total of
216 registered physicians, of whom one was employed by a
mission and thirty by business concerns. The returns
quoted do not distinguish between Europeans and Africans,
but in 1950, all persons so included in this category were
Europeans. There were 376 medical assistants, pharmacists,
and midwives. The majority in the category of auxiliaries
were Africans, as were the majority of the subordinate per
sonnel. In 1951, there were 1,006 institutions for treat
ment, with 22,449 beds. Despite the meager number of
African doctors, the French military and civil doctors in
| 1
jthe Federation have opposed the concessions to African |
! ' ' 1
assistant doctors in regard to private practice. From ,
jl950, however, rules have been gradually relaxed so that 1
jthe Africans may have more opportunities to acquire higher
medical degrees and private practice. In general, Euro- j
j
!peans still predominate overwhelmingly in all echelons of
j i
; French West Africa’s health services, and they are still |
i
i
concentrated in the coastal territories, especially Senegal.j
As of 1952 there was only one African among seventy-one
.nurses holding state diplomas and of these fifty were
1 posted in Senegal. Out of twenty-five midwives only four
t
•with recognized degrees were African, and ten of them were
! 18
! serving in Senegal. °
1 8
Thompson and Adloff, op. cit.. pp. 559-568.
I CHAPTER VIII
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
i
i
)
j „ The interest of France in Tropical Africa goes back
| ■ ■
to the beginning of the fifteenth century if not earlier.
After a period of colonization process the French finally
i
(embarked on the process of assimilation or, perhaps more
accurately, identity. This policy found expression in the
granting not only of citizen rights but also municipal
self-government on the Metropolitan model, and of a measure
of territorial self-government. It also found expression
in the educational sphere especially in French West Africa,
jwhere the system has been predominantly public, free,
|secular, and conducted in the French language. With the
great extension around the turn of the century, of Francefs
responsibilities in Africa, the policy of identity lost
ground for a while. The mass of Africans came to be
thought of as subjects, not citizens. This situation was
not practically remedied until after the Second World
War.
102
103
Between the two World Wars, the French colonial
policy was basically mercantilist; the development of agri-
i
j culture was oriented toward the needs of the French markets
rather than toward those of the local inhabitants. Politi
cally, there were few significant signs of self-government.
Nationalism had not yet taken root in French West Africa,
Jbut there existed a simple sense of racialism chiefly felt
!by Africans most in contact with foreigners. Furthermore,
there was little colonial representation in the French
jParliament; the governors-general in the protectorates and
j :
I territories retained vast powers. Several territories had
'no local assemblies at all, freedom of the press, speech
(and assembly were arbitrarily suppressed. This sort of
j
French rule seemed particularly intransigent in a period
i'
•when England was becoming gradually responsive to demands
i
|for change in its imperial policy. Meanwhile by 1939
French colonialism was decidedly on the defensive. The
fall of France in 1940 greatly intensified the crisis of
the empire; and although most of the colonial people (espe
cially in West Africa) rallied to the side of the Free
French, they expected major postwar changes in status.
Since World War II French colonialism has been the subject
1 of bitter debate. The defenders of the empire have con-
i
tinued to view it as an instrument of progress, though a \
i 1
.few deny the need for reform. j
They hold that French rule by destroying feudal and
tribal organization has paved the way for the emergence
of modem states. In reply, the critics, both French
and native, have stressed the physical and spiritual
impoverishment imposed on millions to benefit the
colons and the mother country. j
i
By 1945, the pressure from the new African parties which
emerged after liberation of that year, and from the left
wing parties in France proved strong enough to push the
Fourth Republic much further along the road of identity
jthan the Brazzaville Conference of 1944 had contemplated.
The problem that confronted France in 1945 was the
j superficial division of pox^er between the home country and
i
!the colonized peoples. As a result the government in 1945
i
jestablished the French Union which rested on the principle
jof association, a mixture of hierarchy and assimilation.
That this new organization was not as satisfactory as it
has often been represented, is exemplified by the dis
satisfaction of the native nationalists who began to demand
19
Harvey Goldberg, French Colonialism: Progress or
Poverty (New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc., 1959),
p. 13.
■ further constitutional concessions. In fact, a growing
| I
number insisted on complete independence. Since neither |
i !
the French government nor the colons have been receptive to
jthese demands, the years since 1946 have been marked by
almost continuous political warfare within the empire. Thei
|result has been the emergence of the French Community and
I
|the consequent attainment by French West and Equatorial
[Africa of self government in 1960.
■ So far, the Constitution of the French Onion under
the Fourth Republic is most controversial. The French
Union was not regulated by a separate constitution but
rather by section VIII of the French Constitution of Octo
ber 27, 1946. The inconsistency of the philosophy of this
political device has produced conflicting interpretations
of its aims and design. For example, the preamble de
scribed the French Union as an organization of nations and
peoples pooling their resources to develop their respective
civilizations, to increase their well being, and to assure
their security. This implied equality among the member
states. But the same preamble described France as leading
"the peoples, of whom she has taken charge, to the freedom
of self-government." This again implied a hierarchy with
106 i
i
France at the apex. In the same way citizenship was ex
tended to all inhabitants of the French Union, thus indi- !
eating equality of all peoples. But, then the distinction i
] - i
was drawn between those who were citizens of Metropolitan !
1 France, a category that included the French living in over-j
I
iseas territories, and those (the mass of natives) who were j
] I
merely citizens of the local territory. Finally, by a
|
[series of Acts in 1946 the basic freedoms of press, asspci- i
ation, and assembly were extended, implying the right of
1 indigenous peoples to organize politically, yet the actual
; electoral provisions introduced for various territories
were based on the double electoral system, guaranteeing a
disproportionate influence to the colons in choosing repre-
jsentatives. Moreover the representatives of the French
\
jgovernment continued to be the administrative chief of each
[territory. It is thus clear that the French Union taken as
;a whole still continues to be the property of France--as
the French Empire. The increase in the number of overseas
representatives in Parliament cannot obscure this fact.
In short, the French Union constitutes an extensive complex
entity, obviously inconceivable without a chief and this is
the role France assumes.
- * “ 107
The constitution is permeated with the colonial j
i i
|spirit, even when trying to overcome it.
| Throughout the wide swings of the French colonial i
I
pendulum, two elements more often than not in conflict with
I
[each other, have remained constant: (a) the integration of
i
Ithe dependencies with the metropole, and (b) the social
I egalitarianism of those who accept French civilization as 1
\ i
their frame of cultural reference. To the idealists, the
r
!
training of Africans for eventual independence or even
i
jself-government has seemed wholly undesirable. For their
! -
I
view the summum bonum to which Africans could aspire was
i : :
! identification with France. In so far as Africans have
{accepted this dictum they probably have enjoyed some
i
equality of status. The right-wing have regarded integra-
tion to mean binding of the dependencies to France by eco
nomic ties that permanently subordinated the interests of
the former to the latter. So far France has not made a
clear choice between the views advocated by liberals and
those promoted by the conservatives. In general it has
facillated between them or attempted to follow portions of
both simultaneously.
In the economic field, no comparable revision of
'policy has yet been taken during the period under study,
108
although it came later on. Though the existence of the
| i
!ten-year Plan for French West Africa and other overseas |
| territories marked a sharp break with the past, the :
j i
!orientation given from 1947 until 1952 to the investments
I
made by FIDES served in large measure to strengthen the |
existing Economie de Traite. By abandoning many of the
goals set by the original sponsors of the Plan, its execu
tion only reinforced the monopolistic practices of the big
French export-import firms. It also introduced a host of
rapacious middlemen into an already anarchic domestic
market and led to an increase in local taxation of all
kinds. On the other hand, the contribution made by France
should be noted even though meager. French public funds
were spent on education, social welfare, and in creating of
new industries. A large portion went to the improvement of
ithe means of communication— which is an indispensable
I
preliminary to any economic and social development.
On the agricultural domain, France has obstinately
neglected the prevention of soil exhaustion and erosion
that resulted from the encouragement of such exports as
peanuts and timber. It has also neglected the spending of
|large sums to finance spectacular and non-economic projects
that were marginal to the existence of the French West 1
; ;
Africa and her trade policy. The latter consisted in I
|obliging the Federation to buy expensive French imports and;
I
j in giving to only some of French West Africa's exports ,
i
preferential prices and a guaranteed market in the Metro-
i
pole. It may be said that both France and the Federation
i
were enmeshed in an archaic economic system from which each j
for different reasons found it difficult to escape. While i
i
lit would have been wise for France to have revised its
i
policy of economic integration and the closed circuit of
jthe franc zone, it is doubtful whether the Federation would
I
I
| have been psychologically and physically prepared to com-
l
pete in world markets. Generally speaking, the articles
I
jproduced in French West Africa for sale in the dollar and
{sterling markets were too few, expensive, and to some
i
i
jdegree mediocre. Furthermore, West African merchants and
producers clamored for the privilege of buying in the
'cheapest foreign market while demanding more protection and
'higher guaranteed prices in the Metropole for their exports.
I
jit is difficult to reconcile these somewhat opposing de-
r
I
mands. France, on its part, seemed unable to modernize its
!
{own rigid economic mold and with only slight modifications !
persisted in applying obsolete economic formulas in the '
! !
jterritories in spite of apparent obstacles. However, the I
j \
I government felt it could not afford to underwrite much j
longer the cost of an economie de traite which benefited j
principally a few French traders and industrialists, par
ticularly in view of the latter*s reluctance to contribute
i
|proportionately to the cost of developing the Federation's
|
economy. Although much of the FIDES funds still went to
I
[improving the infrastructure, a larger share than before
i
i
was allotted to small-scale production works. All the
j measures taken to scale down the taxes weighing on French
j
West African producers and consumers only resulted in a
series of patchwork with none going further than to tinker
with the existing system.
The Loi-Cadre of 1956 and the European Common Market
agreement of 1957 indicate variously government’s prepared
ness to solve the economic impasse of French tropical
Africa. So far, the mining industry has been the only one
in the Federation that attracted large-scale investment by
French and foreign capital. But these have not been per
ceptibly beneficial to French West Africa.
While few processing industries have been set up,
the conditions requiring large scale industrialization of
Ill I
I
a country such as a large domestic market, good communica-
l
i t ion, abundant raw materials and power, are yet lacking.
I
Generally speaking, the country lacks available capital for j
i '
'development and the realization of this accounts partly for j
the native leaders* willingness to remain with the French j
I
Community and to accept their inclusion in the Common !
I ’ !
I I
'Market. The latter, however, is not without some resent- j
jment apd misgivings— for it is still construed as an instru
ment of European neocolonialism.
i .. ..
I
| Now that West Africans have been given more responsi
bility for their future evolution, they have to deal with
some of the issues that have not been settled. In the
political field, they want to manage their own affairs and
i
; demand complete separation of the executive, legislative,
and judicial powers, but it is by no means certain that
J
they have entirely accepted the principles of Western
democracy. On the question of economic development they
repeatedly demanded a speecy industrialization. This is
generally easier said than done. On the cultural sphere
they demand their authentic and unique Negro culture to
become independent of the French civilization that has un
successfully tried to smother or ignore it. In view of
^ the sensation caused by Ghana's independence and similar
movements in British West Africa and French North Africa,
|the Federation could scarcely escape contagion from the
virus of nationalism. Already the success of revolts in
Morocco, in Tunisia, and above all in Algeria, has speeded
Up French legislation favorable to French West and Equa
torial Africa. The French West Africans for their part now
recognize the need for attaining greater unity among them
selves and for continuing to cooperate with French liberal
jelements. The result of the above is seen in the response
accorded the growing political awakening of the Federation
I *
in the notable reform of the Loi-Cadre of June 23, 1956.
The end of French colonial empire in Africa came with
general election of September 18, 1958 when the new
Republic of Guinea rejected by an overwhelming vote the new
Constitution proposed by General de Gaulle. It was the
culmination of an independence movement in Guinea and a
salutary warning to the French of West Africa’s impression
of the colonial drama.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I Adam, Thomas R. Government and Politics in Africa South
of the Sahara* New York: Random House, 1962.
Africa Report--The African. Washington, D.C.: American
| Institute, Inc., 1962.
i
^ African Affairs. New York: French Embassy, Service de
I Presse et d*Information, 1958.
Benveniste, Guy, and William E. Horan, Jr. African
Development; A Test for International Cooperation.
Chicago: The Free Press, 1960.
Cappelle, Jean. ’ ’ Afrique Occidentale Fransaise," in
L*Encyclopedie de L*Empire Francaise. Vol. I. Paris:
1949.
Catroux, Georges. The French Onion. International
Conciliation, No. 495.
Chukwuemeku, Nwankwo. African Dependencies; A Challenge
to Western Democracy. New York: The William Frederick
Press, 1950.
Economic Survey of Africa Since 1950. New York: United
Nations, 1959.
Freedom and Authority in French West Africa. London:
Oxford University Press, 1950.
French Africa; A Decade of Progress, 1948-1958. New York:
French Embassy, Service de Presse et d*Information,
1958.
Goldberg, Harvey. French Colonialism: Progress or Poverty.
New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc., 1959.
115
i
|Hailey, Lord. An African Survey. Revised 1956. London:
I Oxford University Press, 1957.
t
'Hatch, John. Africa Today and Tomorrow. New York:
j Frederick Praeger, 1962.
Hodgkin, Thomas, and Ruth Schachter. French-Speaking West
Africa in Transition. No. 528. New York: Inter
national Conciliation, Hay, 1960.
Kimble, George H. Tropical Africa: Society and Polity.
New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1960.
jLes en Afrique. Cahiers Encyclopediques d*Outre-Mer,
j No. 1, Paris, January, 1956.
jMinistere de France d’Outre-Mer Service des Statistique,
Bulletin Mensuel et Statistique dfOutre-Mer, Supple
ment serie etudes. Paris: 1958.
Padmore, George. Pan-Africanism or Communism: The Coming
; Struggle for Africa. New York: Roy Publishing
j Company, 1956.
jPedler, F. J. Economic Geography of West Africa. London:
I Longman and Green Company, 1955.
j”Scientific Research: A Basis for Economic and Social
j Progress in Africa,” African Affair. New York: French
Embassy, April, 1953.
|Statistical and Economic Review. London: United African
] Company, Ltd., March, 1958.
i
Theobold, Robert. The New Nations of West Africa. New
York: H. W. Willson Company, 1960.
Thompson, Virginia, and Richard Adloff. French West
Africa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957.
United States National Commission for UNESCO. Africa and
1 the United States, Images and Realities. Washington,
D.C.: United States National Commission for UNESCO,
I 1962.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. Africa: The Politics of Independ-
| ence. New York: Random House, 1961.
I
Wiedner, Donald L. A History of Africa South of the
i Sahara. New York: Random House, 1962.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Konwea, Robert Chuba (author)

Core Title Government and the economy in former French West Africa

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Economics

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag economics, general,OAI-PMH Harvest,political science, general,Sub Saharan Africa Studies

Language English

Advisor Morgner, Aurelius (committee chair), Elliott, John E. (committee member), Phillips, E. Bryant (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c20-450714

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Rights Konwea, Robert Chuba

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

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