Word: africanism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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This exultant shout marked the emotional peak of De Gaulle's 13,000-mile, ten-day campaign trip to persuade the 40 million inhabitants of France's African empire to vote for his new constitution-and thereby accept membership in a new "community of free states" led by France. When the general left Paris the week before, it had been to the accompaniment of ominous mutterings from native political bosses in the 13 territories of French Africa...
...even in friendly Brazzaville local politicians had "serious reservations" about the general's constitution. Within a few hours of his arrival political leaders of the four territories of Equatorial Africa presented De Gaulle with a memorandum demanding that France recognize that her African territories have a "right" to freedom whenever they...
...Gaulle's response was a characteristic blend of symbolism and political savvy. It was in Brazzaville, far back in January 1944, that the general made his famed declaration, radical in French terms, that ultimately France's African subjects must be brought "to the level where they are able to participate in the direction of their own affairs." Now, hailing the city as a "historic place" for France, De Gaulle made a second Brazzaville declaration. Its gist: though a no vote on the constitution would exclude a territory from the French community, a yes vote would not bind...
...Gifts Wanted. The Brazzaville speech contributed mightily to the welcome De Gaulle received at Abidjan, his next stop, though some African political leaders in Dakar had an odd objection. "The general misunderstands us," complained one. "He wants to give us our independence, but we want to wrest it away ourselves...
...days De Gaulle was subjected to the curious experience of hearing irate Africans loudly demand something he had already offered them. At Conakry, in French Guinea, firebrand Premier Sékou Touré, orating to a crowd before an obviously annoyed De Gaulle, shouted that "We prefer poverty in independence to richness in slavery." (But Touré also promised that Guinea would vote yes to the constitution.) And at Dakar, restive capital of Senegal, De Gaulle's motorcade into town was beset by jeering demonstrators calling for "immediate independence." For the first time during his African tour, the stony...