French West Africa
Proper noun
Meaning
French West Africa
A geographical group of French colonies in West Africa under the supervisory authority of a single governor-general, comprising the following colonised countries (present names as independent republics in parentheses if different): Dahomey (Benin), French Guinea (Guinea), the French Sudan (Mali), Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso). The last governor-general was also the first of two successive High commissioners, charged with the transition to independence as independent republics, without a common administrative level.
Examples
A turning point in relations with France was reached with the 1956 Overseas Reform Act ( Loi Cadre ), which transferred a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa and also removed remaining voting inequalities.
Dakar replaced Saint-Louis as the capital of French West Africa in 1902.
In 1899, the French included the land called French Dahomey within the larger French West Africa colonial region.
French Sudan was administered as part of the Federation of French West Africa and supplied labor to France’s colonies on the coast of West Africa.
His Movement Socialist Africain (known by the name Sawaba – independence in the Hausa language ) called for a "no" vote: one of only two major formations in French West Africa to do so.
Many of the population, especially in the interior, considered the tax a humiliating symbol of submission. citation In 1905, the French officially abolished slavery in most of French West Africa.