Observation

This was a popular question. Many candidates that attempted it performed below average as they fail to understand the demands of the question. The candidates were expected to explain the following points in order to score good marks.

1. It was highly centralized with all the instructions and directives coming from France. 
2. Direct rule – The French Citizens were directly involved in the administration of the colonial territories.
3. Policy of Assimilation – The policy introduced French Culture.
4. Africans were made French citizens and French subjects.
5. The French colonial authorities appointed and dismissed traditional rulers and chiefs at will.
6. Education was restricted to only a few, as schools were built in French territories.
7. Indigénat policy and forced labour i.e. arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of recalcitrant Africans for two years without trial.
8. France regarded her West African territories as extension of France.
9. Political parties in France had branches in the colonies.
10. Policy of Association was adopted to replace assimilation.
11. African representations were in French chamber of deputies.
12. Existence of a governor in each colony.
13. Organized into a federation- The nine colonial territories of the French in West Africa were organized into a federation with the headquarters in Dakar under a Governor – General.