Houphouet-Boigny - Black Africa and the French Union

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Black Africa and the French UnionAuthor(s): Flix Houphouet-BoignySource: Foreign Affairs, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Jul., 1957), pp. 593-599Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20031255

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BLACK AFRICA AND THEFRENCH UNIONBy Fliux Houphouet-Boigny

TN this second half of the twentieth century, a newcomer hasmade its appearance on the international scene: Black Africa.Strategists, politicians, economists are no longer indifferenttowhat happens inDakar, inAbidjan, inAccra, inLome. Neverhas our old continent been honored by somany visitors of suchhigh rank nor been the object of so much study. But since theera of colonialism is over, it is first of all theAfricans themselveswho must be consulted on the future evolution of Africa and onthe relations between the former subject peoples and the formercolonizers.I am aman of the African soil, having lived constantly in themidst of our rural Negro masses, sharing their joys and theirsorrows, andmaking theirgreat hope of libertymy own. For tenconsecutive years, they have elected me to represent them in theFrench Parliament. I am the leaderof themost powerfulAfricanpolitical movement-a movement which continues to this veryday to denounce the abuses and errors of colonialism, and to calluntiringly for justice and equality. For these reasons, I think Ihave the right to considermyself the authentic spokesman of themillions of African men andwomen who have chosen, in preference to the type of independence just acquired by the neighboring state of Ghana, a Franco-African community founded onliberty, equality and fraternity.In consideringwhere the real interests of the colored peoplesof the French territories inAfrica lie,we do not beginwith a blankslate. The relations which prevail between Frenchmen of themother country and Frenchmen of Africa already exist in anhistorical complex of events lived in common, inwhich good andbad memories mingle. I forget neither the good nor the bad, butI think that the bonds thus forged are, like childhood memories,understandable and emotionally significant only for the initiated,for those near to the events, for thosewhose lives these bondshave cast in the samemold. I will therefore examine only thepresent state of relationswithin the French Union, as they haveevolved during the past ten years.As a preliminary,we must remove the aura which the concept


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594 FOREIGN AFFAIRSof independence holds in our imaginations.Why do we not demand independence?To answer this question, I can only ask another: What is independence? Industrial and technical revolutions aremaking peoplesmore andmore dependent on one another. I asked my friendMr. Nkrumah whether he was readyto leave the sterling zone now that Ghana was independent. "Notonlywill we remain in the sterling zone, but also in theCommonwealth," he answered immediately.Indeed, who doubts that close and sustained economic relations are essential to a countrywhich wants to raise its standardof living?What countries are self-sufficient?Not even theUnitedStates. Indeed, the countries of Europe in the Coal and SteelCommunity, in Euratom and in the Common Market are prepared to relinquish a part of their sovereignty, that is to say, apart of their national independence.Why, if not to bring about,by association and mutual aid, a more fully elaborated form ofcivilization which is more advantageous for their peoples andwhich transcends a nationalism that is too cramped, too dogmaticand by now out of date?This is also our goal, because it is in our interest.We want tocooperatewithin this great aggregatewhich is the FrenchUnion,because it is there that we can safeguard the advantages and theinterests of the black people of Africa.I am a native of a territorywhose development has scarcelybegun. Between I939 and I955 the tonnage handled by the portofAbidjan in the IvoryCoast went from 231,250 tons to 930,000tons.The population has increased tenfold in the space of a fewyears and this rate shows no sign of diminishing.The IvoryCoastcould not, by itself, find the means of providing the investmentmonies needed to copewith this heavy and continuing expansion.Formany more years-io? 20? 50?-it will require enough capitalaid to allow its inhabitants tomake up for the heavy handicapswhich nature imposes on tropical countries.This outside capital assistance is needed by all countries undergoing rapid expansion,whether they are nominally independentor not.We wish to remain in the French Union because it furnishes us this assistance and does it by an arrangement whichseems to us the surest and best adapted to further the social andtechnical progress of our peoples.The Investment Fund for the Economic and Social Development of theOverseas Territories (F.I.D.E.S.) was created in I946


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BLACK AFRICA AND THE FRENCH UNION 595to centralize and coordinate,with the cooperation of theCentralFund for France Overseas, amajor program of internal development. In the space of ten years, more than 6oo billion francs ofgovernment funds have been devoted to territories whose areais 9,ooo,ooo square kilometers but whose population does notexceed 30,000,000.The Administrative Council of the Central Fund, which manages the F.I.D.E.S., is composed of representatives of the important bureaus of the government, and also of members appointed by Parliament and by the labor unions. Several of itsmembers areAfricans, who can thus keep a check on the use andapportionment of these government funds andmake sure thatthe interests of the people are effectively safeguarded. It shouldbe understood thatwe are speakinghere of government funds provided by themother country, leaving aside private investmentson the one hand and localbudgets on the other.It has often been said that France has devoted more money tounderdeveloped territories than any other country. Iwould addthat France's accomplishments are even more praiseworthy if itis remembered that she has borne the impact of twowars andthat in I945 she had to reconstruct her own territory, ravagedby military campaigns and pillaged by four years of occupation.Nevertheless, the sums which France puts at the disposalof the overseas territories are not so extraordinary that theycould not be duplicated.Why attach oneself to this single source?The fact is that themanner inwhich money is given can be aguarantee of continuity and stability. Perhaps we will on occasionfind some creditor, public or private, capable of loaning, if notof giving, the billions necessary for the industrial, technical andsocialdevelopment of theAfrican territories.But what guaranteewould we have that this aid would be forthcoming year afteryear? How could we control the allocation of the loans offered?Forwhat would we be asked in exchange?We knowwhat France asks of us-to share inher institutionsand to share in them as equals. The right of citizenship has beengranted without restriction to all the inhabitants of the French

Union, and all the electors,whatever theirorigin, are gathered ina single college. At one stroke universal suffragehas been instituted everywhere-a privilege that not even the state of Ghananor British Nigeria has yet dared extend to the tribal regions ofthe interior.No racial or religious discrimination prohibits any


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596 FOREIGN AFFAIRSactivity, public or private. Opportunities are legally the same forall, and if inequalities exist they arise from circumstances or localconditions which the authorities aremaking every effort to eliminate.Thus the democratic institutions of republican France havelittle by little been established in the overseas territories.Duringthe past severalmonths, free elections throughout French Africahave enabled the people to choose thosewho would direct communal, urban, ruralor territorial institutions.As a result,Africansare now in a position to exercise their responsibilities and toassert their political personality. Municipal councils exercisesovereign power over local affairs.Territorial assemblies are endowed with broad deliberative powers allowing them to adoptautonomous laws distinct from legislationwhich applies to themother country. They have an executive responsible to them, towhom is entrusted the direction of territorial affairswith theexception of foreign relations, defense and security, which remain in the hands of the central power. It is in some degree selfgovernment, but it maintains essential linkswith the Republic,and isnot without analogy to the federal structure of theUnitedStates of America.What makes it certainly unique, however, among various relationships that have existed inmodern times between amothercountry and its dependencies is the participation of overseaspopulations in the central government of the Republic. There are,in the National Assembly and in the Council of the Republic,Negro deputies and senators, elected in the sameway as theircolleagues of the mother country. The fusion has succeeded sowell, mutual courtesy and comprehension have developed sonaturally, that no one in France finds it remarkable any longerthat the third-ranking dignitary of theRepublic, the President ofthe Senate, is aNegro-Mr. Monnerville. It will seem then justas unremarkable that other colored people have for several yearsplayed a part in the Government, and that Imyself was able torepresentFrance in theUnited Nations at the time of the debateson Togo.

It is not vanity which makes me emphasize the importance ofthe positions occupied by colored people in the highest functionsof a great nation. It is simply to explain our attachment to theFrench Union as it is conceived.We feel at home in it.We participate in family discussions.Nothing ishidden fromus-neither


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BLACK AFRICA AND THE FRENCH UNION 597hopes nor dangers.How could we better preserve the interestsof theNegro peoplewho for somany years have put their confidence in us again and again? It is this awareness of a comprehensive interdependence of mutual interests which has permittedthe creation of a Franco-African community based on equality.It is expressed by autonomy in themanagement of local affairsand intimate association in themanagement of the general interests of theRepublic.Since the French Union isdynamic, our evolution continues onthe national level, and other ties are contemplated in a constitutional reformnow being prepared and soon to be debated in theFrench Parliament. We took part in the preparations for thisdebate,maintaining as our guiding principle the idea of a federalcommunity, freely joining the peoples of French language andculture. The specific terms by which the principle will be expressedmust now be decided by French legislators-black andwhite.Naturally, we cannot help but compare our own evolution

with the experimentwhich Great Britain has just undertaken ingranting independence to the state ofGhana. Actually, the termsof agreement do not differ greatly, although we have not askedfor the type of independencewhich Mr. Nkrumah has just obtained.After much reflection,bearing inmind thehighest interestof thisAfrica which we dearly love, the human relations existingbetween French andAfrican, and the imperative of this century-the interdependence of nations-from which no power canclaim to escape,we have preferred to try a different experiment,more difficultperhaps, but unique of its kind and unknown untilnow in the long history of nations-that of a community ofpeoples, equal and fraternal.Shouldwe turn away from this community, made possible byrecentpolitical, economic and social reforms?Shouldwe demandour total independence, as somany other countries have? Nomajor African political party has thought so, and none has putindependence into its platform.Today, no nation, however powerful, can pretend to impose itsabsolutewill on another for long.By doing so, itwould irremediably compromise its own future as a great nation. France knowsthis. Its own best interests no less than its sensitivity to humanvalues and the absence of any racist feelings among its peoplehave led it voluntarily to renounce force as an instrument of


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598 FOREIGNAFFAIRSpolicy in Black Africa and to seek new political arrangementswith us, actively and sincerely.Those arrangements which we have chosen, and which aregoing into effect now, offer assurance of stability and securityconditions that are indispensable to the creation of an economicand social environment inwhich theAfrican people can attain astandard of living comparable to that of the peoples of the greatmodern nations. These institutional arrangements are such as toattract investments in all forms-imports of capital, techniciansandmethods-which are indispensable to our territories.Theyallow us to prove ourmaturity, within the forms andmodes ofthought towhich our culture has accustomed us.As our evolution continues simultaneously at the internationallevel, other bonds are to be created through the reorganizationofthe franc zone.Moreover, in recent international negotiations,the French Government has proposed that the overseas territories be included in the European Common Market. This proposal has now been incorporated into the treaty which has justbeen signed by the representatives of the sixmember states.At the request of PremierMollet, I took part in the Brusselsdiscussions and in the negotiations which preceded thewritingof the definitive text of this treaty. Since my colleagues frommetropolitan France were no less eager than myself to defendthe interests of the African territories,we succeeded togetherinovercoming a number of reservationswhich no territory actingindividually could have dispelled. Thanks to the Franco-Africancommunity, our territorieswill enter the CommonMarket withmore guarantees for their future than they could possibly haveachieved if theywere independent.We can continue to enjoy ourlibertieswithout fear that some economic enterprise will interfere inour political life,causing us to degenerate into neo-feudalism, as in theMiddle East, or into dictatorship, as inEgypt.Some of us, of course, have had to fight so that France wouldnot impose on us certain abusive forms of its sovereignty whichare associated with the term colonialism.Many well rememberthe battle waged for emancipation. But I can say, as amemberof this group, that despite the violence of some of the encounters,very few of us still feel bitterness.The presence of the French inAfrica is the result ofmilitaryconquests or of peaceful penetrations which go back to the endof the last century. France has suppressed slavery wherever it


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BLACK AFRICA AND THE FRENCH UNION 599existed and has put an end to the quarrels which set differentethnic groups against one another; it has given its education tothe African masses and its culture to an elite; it has institutedsanitary andmedical improvementswithout precedent. InFrenchranks, in turn,we have poured out our blood on the battlefieldsfor the defense of liberty, andwe have won a place in the historyof France and of the freeworld. We do not want to abandon thisrecent heritage by trying to go back to our origins.Moreover, we have, in common with the French, qualitieswhich have facilitated our relationswith them: good sense, realism, discrimination, which are as widespread among the blackpeasants of Africa as in the rural sections of France. In difficulttimes these qualities have enabled us to establish distinctionsbetween colonization and the abuses of colonization.They enableus to understand today that in a world where interdependencehas become the supreme rule, outbreaks of fanaticism and nationalism accomplish nothing and run the risk ofmerely increasingmisery.

The example of the young state ofGhana isvery tempting. Theseizure of power has something exciting about it,we know. Butthe exercise of this power in a fashion consonant with nationaland human dignity is difficult.There doubtless are powerful nations which would provide us with themeans to overcome ourmaterial difficulties. But which of them would allow us to jointhem in equality and fraternity? The modern world offers somany examples of barriers to raceor class which pen in humanbeings that we cannot help but want to respond to France'sloyalty and humane conduct in like fashion. It is important thatthe Franco-African community-egalitarian, humane and fraternal-appear to all nations not only as an example to be emulated but also as an element of international stability on whicha sure future can be built.In our view, that community is an act of faith in this futureand also an act of human solidarity. It enables us to bring ourstone to the world edifice without losing either our nationalidentity or the French citizenship which we have earned andacquiredworthily. And it constitutes a homewe wish to keep, asin the definition which Robert Frost gave of it:Home is the place whereWhen you have to go there,They have to take you in.

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