Analyze/Change, just like the desire to change things for something better that suits everyone or not, is the consequence of a desire to do things better by accepting discussions, consultations, making proposals and above all by providing clarification on a policy that is considered to be a project of common interest. Indeed, regardless of the fact that in addition to the objectives targeted and made public there may be other unacknowledged ones, any serious project always leads to satisfactory results. If after ten or even in extreme cases twenty or more years there is no change, it is always necessary to consider other alternatives not only to maintain a certain influence on one or several territories but above all offering these territories one or more means of achieving what they most desire.
After ten years in the French Union created in 1946, African people aspired to something better. Looking closely at the multiple military coups in Africa in recent years and the desire for certain leaders to break and/or review in the sense of renegotiating all political, economic and even military relations with a historic partner and in particular the France, we will certainly say that this is one of the signs of the awakening of Africa and Africans while what is in question dates back several years before, notably with pan-African and nationalist demands which already demonstrated and presaged a desire to break with any policy of enslavement.
With the aim of maintaining its hegemony over its external and especially African dependencies, France implemented the Cadre Gaston Deffere law to launch in 1956 the process of a determining phase of the decolonization of African territories which had certainly been initiated in 1946 after the Second World War in particular with the creation of the French Union but which was not satisfactory because the territories did not enjoy any autonomy in the management of their internal affairs and were not even truly structured from the inside politically and even administratively because everything was controlled by France.
Also read : The French Union : a unifiying geographical concept for preservation of the strategic interests of a colonial power in Cameroon
The Gaston De Deffere framework law therefore responded to the problem of the autonomy of African territories which will initially be partial with the appointment of indigenous people as ministers, to be officially complete with the declarations of independence even if the anti-French sentiment which reigns in certain African Territories suggests that it is now that these Territories, formerly French colonies, have really shown that they are independent Territories. Indeed, achieving independence under the leadership of France involved bilateral compromises in several sectors of activity which led some to develop the concept of neocolonialism to signify this control of France or rather its constant influence on so-called Territories independent who are not even independent in reality. But before arriving at this observation that some describe as shameful, France had to take its responsibility by proposing a solution of concrete freedom to which most of its ex-colonies apart from Cameroon and Togo which had special statuses, made the choice to accept, that is to say, to become members of the French community created by General De Gaulle and prepared by Gaston Deffere and his framework law of 1956.
Integration into the French community
This political association included in the constitution of the Fifth Republic of France of October 4, 1958 gives the possibility to those who choose to integrate the community to maintain their autonomy and achieve complete autonomy after a “negotiated and supported” independence. These terms already reflected the fact that even if theses territories will have the right to manage their own affairs, they would remain in some way property of France.
Support because France was a colonial power, and negotiation because if you want to enjoy a certain freedom, you must give us something in return. Reason why your emancipation process must be carried out according to our methods despite the fact that the draft constitution submitted to the referendum of September 1958 for the creation of the French community was also a solution provided to put an end to Algerian War which was the consequence of a desire for self-determination already expressed by most of the former French colonies and in particular one of the major African party of the time, the African Regroupment Party (ARP) which demanded immediate independence in 1958. This contradictory point of view or which went against integration into the French community, justified the African crusade of General De Gaulle in order to better defend his choice or his African project of September 28, 1958 and encouraged the African territories to integrate the French Community while specifying that they also have the freedom to refuse and to be independent immediately as the African regroupment party made known. In a way, he forced the African territories to integrate the community since he knew what the choice to refuse implied.
But the total severance of all relations with the country which chose not to join the community did not scare Ahmed Sékou Touré of French Guinea which became independent on October 2, 1958 under the name of the Republic of Guinea. This courageous choice is perhaps at the origin of the current military initiatives in Guinea Conakry, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, most of which have chosen to break several aspects of their relations with France in a multipolar world where there are even more partners. Indeed, if before and particularly in 1958 you had among many others the possibility of establishing alliances with the Soviet Union as Sékou Touré had done, today the possibilities for partnerships are even more numerous both in Africa than in the rest of the world.
Unlike French Guinea which made the choice to refuse to integrate the French community and to accept its choice with all the difficulties that this implied, Chad, Dahomey (Benin), French Sudan (the Republic of Mali) Currently in revolt, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritania, Middle Congo (Republic of Congo), Gabon, Niger (Currently in revolt), Senegal (who wants currently reviewing the quality of its relations with its historic partner), Oubangui Chari (Equatorial Guinea), and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) Currently in revolt, have chosen to pursue a "negotiated and accompanied" independence. This de facto led to the disappearance of the two federations of West Africa (1895-1958) and French Equatorial (1910-1958).
At the beginning of 1960, all these member States of the community gained their independence, always leaving uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of autonomy on the political, economic, military, educational and judicial levels. If the most skeptical have been comforted by the anti-French feeling which has developed in certain countries in recent years, we must still recognize that the accession to independence following integration into this political association tainted by hypocrisies whose constitutional provisions were repealed in 1995, was an important phase in the process of emancipation of several African Territories which have since then the responsibility of continually putting in this container that is the status of State or independent country a real content through acts or choices truly corresponding to their aspirations or their freedom to self-manage or to be truly independent by responding actively and continuously through concrete and truly constructive acts to the multiple problems of Africans people's and in particular the most vulnerable sections of society.
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