Citizenship between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945-1960

"Frederick Cooper’s analysis focuses on the ambitious project of the French government in Paris, after 1945, of trying to transform its authoritarian colonial empire into a democratic federation. This Franco-African union involved a parliament in Paris that included up to 100-150 representatives of the colonies—especially from North and West Africa; the situation was much more complex for Indochina or Madagascar, who had already left or were about to leave the imperial federation. Of course, it never really worked. The French government was willing to allocate a share of parliamentary seats to the colonies, but always made sure that, in the end, the representatives of the metropole kept a large majority of the votes. This was far from egalitarian, since at its height, the French colonial empire had 40 million citizens in France, and 95 million in the colonies. Even when including only African colonies (about 60 million), a purely proportional representation would have meant for the French authorities to give up their power. Indeed it led to the idea that West African countries—and maybe also North African ones—could form federations. For a short time between 1958 and 1960, this took the form of the Mali Federation, which meant to include Senegal, Sudan, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), and Dahomey (now Benin). This project had its own weaknesses, and in the end the only two members of the federation were Senegal and Sudan. This created a very unstable relationship, one country, Senegal, having a smaller population but a higher income than the other; and thus not much to gain from putting resources in common. This alliance also failed, and when the French empire collapsed, what was left was a myriad of small nation states. The limits of these small states were clearly visible to African leaders of the time, especially Léopold Sédar Senghor in Senegal and Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast. They anticipated that, when facing international economic forces and multinational companies, the sovereignty of these new countries would be very limited. This debate on federalism, and how to organise a region in the context of a globalised economy of transnational forces, is still very relevant. The questions of common currencies, transnational taxation, freedom of movement, investments in education, can be answered through federalist alliances. And Cooper’s book gives a breath of fresh air, by showing that things could go in many directions, including very hopeful ones. And much is happening in Africa at the moment, mostly around the Economic Community of West African States , which is slowly expanding—Morocco recently requested to join it—and is now discussing the creation of common institutions for budgetary and parliamentary decisions."