defeat and bowing to the democratic process. The
military gave way to civilian rule. In Gabon,
where President Omar Bongo ruled uninterrupt-
edly for more than twenty years, the one-party
system ended in 1990. Bongo survived the tran-
sition and retained power. But the old problems
of underdevelopment, lack of mass education
(though there were remarkable improvements),
ethnic conflicts and past political traditions did
not augur well for the establishment of deeply
rooted, democratically based representative gov-
ernments in the 1990s.
The British colonies followed another path to
independence, which differed from the French;
retention of imperial control, or – in the case of
the white settlers – of the settlers’ control, was
after all the common objective in both French
and British African territories until the 1950s.
British governments allowed more initiative to the
men on the spot, allowing a colonial administra-
tion that was less rigidly centralised than the
French. British territories were ruled by a mixture
of direct and indirect control. There were so few
Europeans that what became known as ‘indirect
rule’ was almost inevitable; agreements were made
with indigenous African chiefs and potentates,
who accepted British suzerainty but were left to
rule their fiefs under ultimate British supervision.
Administration by indirect rule is particularly asso-
ciated with Frederick Lugard, who conquered
northern Nigeria (1900–6) and then combined it
with southern Nigeria into one large colony. But
northern Nigeria, with 10 million inhabitants,
could not be directly governed by a handful of
Europeans, so Muslim Fulani emirs were left with
a semblance of their old authority to maintain
order and undertake the administration.
The significant point about British rule over
tropical Africa is that what began as expediency
became a general doctrine of ‘indirect rule’, a
means of British–African cooperation in the
development of colonies. Thus, so it was believed,
African society – shorn of its worst features, such
as slavery – would be preserved for an eventual
African future. But indirect rule generally func-
tioned only in the least developed regions of
Africa; on the West African coast direct rule had
long replaced the older African society. Where
significant numbers of white settlers were claim-
ing the territories as their African birthright, as
they were in southern Rhodesia, Kenya or South
Africa, or where large-scale mining of copper had
given rise to important industrial enterprises, as in
1
THE END OF WHITE RULE IN WEST AFRICA 729
Fourteen French-speaking African states, 1987 and 2000
Populations (millions) Annual Purchasing Power
1987 2000
Parity per head (US$)
Mauritania 1.86 2.7 1,630
Mali 7.77 11.4 780
Niger 6.78 10.08 2,100
Chad 5.26 7.9 900
Central African Republic 2.72 3.7 1,200
Congo – Brazzaville 2.01 3.2 570
Gabon 1.05 1.2 5,400
Cameroon 10.86 14.9 1,600
Benin (Dahomey) 4.31 6.3 980
Togo 3.24 4.5 1,400
Burkino Faso (Upper Volta) 8.31 11.5 970
Côte D’Ivoire 11.12 16.0 1,500
Guinea 6.5 8.2 2,000
Senegal 6.95 9.4 1,500
Note: Formerly part of French West and Equatorial Africa. All gained independence in 1960,
except Guinea (1958).
