Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T17:27:27.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Political Integration in Africa: the Mali Federation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

In the 1958 referendum on the constitution of the Fifth Republic, General de Gaulle asked the French West African territories whether they wanted continued association with France in the Community; if they voted ‘No’, this meant immediate independence, which was chosen by Guinea alone.

There was widespread sentiment, in those territories which voted ‘Yes’, in favour of some type of federation for the former A.O.F. (L'Afrique occidentale française). Long an advocate of this idea, Leopold Senghor of Senegal presented a constitution for a West African federation to the other A.O.F. leaders in October 1958. Senegal, Dahomey, Upper Volta, and Soudan all empowered their governments to enter into the proposed federation; Niger, Mauretania, and Ivory Coast said nothing. The four territories which responded to the call for unity sent delegations to meetings of federalists, in Bamako in December 1958, and then in Dakar, at which time a constituent assembly met and drafted a constitution. The work was finished and approved without discussion in three days.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Page 406 note 1 See Bascom, William R., ‘Tribalism, Nationalism, and Pan-Africanism’, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia), CCCXLIII, 07 1962Google Scholar; Welch, Claude E., Dream of Unity: pan-Africanism and political unification in West Africa (Ithaca, 1966)Google Scholar; Foltz, William J., From French West Africa to the Mali Federation (New Haven, 1965)Google Scholar; Legum, Colin, Pan-Africanism (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Rothchild, Donald S., Toward Unity in Africa (Washington D.C., 1960)Google ScholarNye, Joseph, Pan Africanism and East African Integration (Cambridge, Mass., 1965)Google Scholar; Padelford, Norman J., ‘The Organization of African Unity’, in International Organization (Boston), XVIII, Summer 1964Google Scholar; and Kioman, Erasmus H. Jr, ‘African Unification Movements’, in International Organization, XVI, Spring 1962.Google Scholar

Page 406 note 2 See Haas, Ernest B. and Schmitter, Philippe C., ‘Economics and Differential Patterns of Political Integration’, in International Organization, XVIII, Autumn 1964Google Scholar; Haas, Ernest B. and Schmitter, Philippe C., Mexico and Latin American Economic Integration (Berkeley, 1964)Google Scholar; and Jacob, Philip E. and Toscano, James V. (eds.), Integration of Political Communities (Philadelphia and New York, 1964)Google Scholar. Foltz, op. cit. pp. 189–92, takes note of one contribution to this holy body of literature, Deutsch, Karl W.et al., Political Community and the North Atlantic Area (Princeton, 1957).Google Scholar

Page 407 note 1 Haas and Schmitter, loc. cit. pp. 707 and 709.

Page 409 note 1 These statistics are all from United Nations Demographic Yearbook, 1962 (New York), pp. 104–5.Google Scholar

Page 410 note 1 Robinson, Kenneth, ‘Political Development in French West Africa’, in Stillman, Colin W. (ed.), Africa in the Modern World (Chicago, 1955), p. 153.Google Scholar

Page 410 note 2 Thompson, Virginia and Adloff, Richard, French West Africa (Stanford, 1957), pp. 255 and 301–2.Google Scholar

Page 410 note 3 Berg, Elliot, ‘The Economics of Independence in French Speaking West Africa’, in McEvan, Peter J. M. and Sutcliffe, Robert B. (eds.), Modern Africa (New York, 1965), p. 296.Google Scholar

Page 410 note 4 LeQueene, C. M., ‘French West Africa’, in African Affairs (London), LXIV, 04 1965, pp. 7880.Google Scholar

Page 411 note 1 Berg, Elliot, ‘The Economic Basis of Political Choice in French West Africa’, in American Political Science Review (Menasha), LIV, 06 1960, p. 400.Google Scholar

Page 411 note 2 Berg, Elliot, ‘French West Africa’, in Galenson, Walter (ed.), Labor and Economic Development (New York, 1959), p. 189.Google Scholar

Page 411 note 3 Foltz, op. cit. pp. 156–8. He does point out, however, that there was no indication that this labour force was essential to the crop, and that the nut growers were not an active interest group.

Page 411 note 4 Berg, ‘The Economic Basis of Political Choice’, loc. cit. p. 401.

Page 412 note 1 Milcent, Ernest, ‘Senegal’, in Carter, Gwendolen M. (ed.), African One-Party States (Ithaca, 1962), p. 96.Google Scholar

Page 412 note 2 Wallerstein, I., ‘Elites in French-Speaking West Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), III, 1965, p. 6.Google Scholar

Page 412 note 3 Davies, Ioan, African Trade Unions (London, 1966), pp. 198200.Google Scholar

Page 413 note 1 Wallerstein, loc. cit. pp. 11–12 and 61.

Page 413 note 2 Foltz, op. cit. p. 21.

Page 414 note 1 Ibid.; the quotation by Keita and Senghor comes from ‘Conference de Presse’ (Paris), 21 May 1959, mimeo., p. 3.

Page 414 note 2 See LeQueene, loc. cit. p. 83.

Page 414 note 3 Foltz, op. cit. p. 151; see also Sewin, J. L., ‘Elites sociales et partis politiques d'AOF’, in Annales africaines (Dakar), 1958, pp. 123–57.Google Scholar

Page 414 note 4 Foltz, op. cit. p. 154.

Page 415 note 1 Mercier, P., ‘Evolution of Senegalese Elites’, in International Social Science Journal (Paris), VIII, 1956, p. 447.Google Scholar

Page 415 note 2 Russett, Bruce M.et al., World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (New Haven and London, 1964), p. 53.Google Scholar

Page 415 note 3 See Hodgkin, Thomas and Schachter, Ruth, ‘French Speaking West Africa in Transition’, in International Conciliation (New York), DXXVIII, 05 1960, p. 425.Google Scholar

Page 416 note 1 Dia, Mamadou, African Nations and World Solidarity (London, 1962), p. 108.Google Scholar

Page 416 note 2 Foltz, op. cit. pp. 145–6.

Page 417 note 1 Ibid. p. 129.

Page 418 note 1 The above section, on government purposes and powers of the union, is based on Foltz, pp. 129–187, passim, and Crowder, Michael, Senegal: a study in French assimilation policy (London, 1962), pp. 5862.Google Scholar

Page 419 note 1 Foltz, op. cit. pp. 129–87.

Page 419 note 2 See Crowder, op. cit. pp. 58–68; and Rothchild, Donald S., ‘The Politics of African Separatism’, in Journal of International Affairs (Towson, Maryland), XV–XVI, 19611962, p. 20.Google Scholar

Page 419 note 3 Rothchild, ‘The Politics of African Separatism’, loc. cit. pp. 25–6.

Page 420 note 1 Haas and Schmitter, loc. cit. p. 720.

Page 421 note 1 Segal, Aaron, ‘The Integration of Developing Countries: some thoughts on East Africa and Central America’, in Journal of Common Market Studies (Oxford), v, 03 1967, p. 260Google Scholar, suggests that integration offers risks and uncertainties in new structures and processes which may deprive politicians of their natural power bases. See also Spiro, Herbert J., Africa: the primacy of politics (New York, 1966)Google Scholar, for a discussion of the central role of politics in African societies.

Page 421 note 2 Hunter, Guy, The New Societies of Tropical Africa (London, 1962), p. 308.Google Scholar

Page 421 note 3 Foltz, op. cit. p. 161.

Page 422 note 1 Dia, op. cit. p. 140.

Page 422 note 2 Ibid. pp. 146 and 143.

Page 423 note 1 Elazar, Daniel, American Federalism: a view from the States (New York, 1966), pp. 8493.Google Scholar