This was a very unpopular question as it was avoided by many candidates.  The few candidates that attempted it could not do enough justice to the demands of the question.  The overall candidates’ performance in the question was below average.  In order to score very high marks in the question, candidates were expected to identify the following points:

• the policy of assimilation was an expensive policy;
• there was stiff resistance by West Africans against the imposition of French;
• the policy was discriminatory against traditional institutions;
• the rise to power of president Charles de Gaulle and his determination to replace assimilation with association; etc.