World War II and Vichy
After the fall of France and the creation of the German-allied Vichy government in 1940, most of the administration, as well as leaders of the armed forces; in French West Africa accepted the authority of the new regime. Included were the governor of French Guinea and the French colonial staff in the colony. French residents in general also gave support to the Vichy government. Later in 1940 the position of that government was strengthened by the appointment of Pierre Boisson, who was personally loyal to Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, as governor general of French West Africa.
In November 1942, after the Allied landings in North Africa and Admiral Francois Darlan's declaration for the Allies, Boisson and other French West African government leaders declared their allegiance to General Charles de Gaulle, head of the Free French, and to the French Provisonal Government in Algiers. In 1943 a French consultative assembly called by this government meeting in Algiers replaced Boisson, the colonial governors, and some other senior administrative staff. In general, however, the administration in Guinea and the other colonies continued as before.
The war brought hardships for the indigenous population of French Guinea. Imported consumer goods were in short supply, and requirements to deliver foodstuffs and strategic raw materials, such as wild rubber, were imposed. Decreases in administrative staff resulted in the use of arbitrary means to solve growing problems. Under the Vichy regime racial discrimination came into the open, although this affected the small group of évolués more than the ordinary person, who had long been openly subjected to this practice. The use of forced labor also increased greatly. The situation did not improve after the changeover from Vichy to the Free French. If anything, the demand for materials to support the Allied war effort rose, and methods used to recruit troops and to obtain laborers and porters continued to be equally repressive.
Most of the African population showed little if any political interest in the struggle in Europe. From about 1943 the educated minority came to some extent under Marxist influences propounded by French Communists serving as teachers and labor organizers. In Conakry a branch of the Communist Studies Groups (Groupes d'Etudes Communistes) offered an opportunity for young African intellectuals to discuss African problems in Marxist terms. No effort appears to have been made, however, to encourage the formation of a domestic African communist party. Such political activity as existed in the colony was largely confined to small groups concerned with local or self-interest issues. The germ of nationalism was present, but it was not until after the end of World War II that present-day Guinean nationalism took root in the political ferment of the times and began to spread with the development of major political parties in the latter 1940s.
In early 1944, in the confused situation that existed in French Africa after the ousting of Vichy control, the French National Liberation Committee, of which General de Gaulle was president, called the French African Conference to consider a program of reform. Better known as the Brazzaville Conference — it met in Brazzaville, Congo — the gathering was composed of French colonial governors and administrators, parliamentarians, and labor leaders; despite its name the French African Conference included no Africans.
Various political, social, and economic recommendations were made that in overall character were a compromise between the old assimilationist and a new federalist point of view. It was proposed that the colonies send representatives to the French Constituent Assembly — the representatives would include Africans — when it convened after the war and that they be granted political representation in a future federal assembly. No express provisions were made for an African franchise, but it was recommended that each colony have a consultative assembly composed of Europeans and Africans. Decentralization was envisaged in the postwar administrative structure. The conference recommended that industrialization be undertaken, that tariffs and customs be liberalized, that local customs be respected and safeguarded, that the indigénat be abolished (but not until the end of the war), and that a new penal code be adopted. Health and education facilities were to be improved, and labor conscription was to be ended (after five years). It also proposed that colonial administration be opened to Africans.
The Brazzaville Conference signaled the beginning of a new era in French colonial policy. The general tenor, however, anticipated not independence but a degree of autonomy and a more real assimilation. It had little immediate effect, except for the passage of a law in August 1944 granting labor in French West Africa the right to organize.
In November 1945 the postwar First Constituent Assembly convened in Paris, charged both with drafting a new constitution for the Fourth Republic and also with carrying on regular legislative activities. As part of the latter it abolished the indigénat and forced labor, adopted a new penal code for French West Africa, and approved funds for economic and social development. In May 1946 it passed the Lamine-Guèye Law (named for an African socialist deputy from Senegal), which extended French citizenship to all the inhabitants of the French colonies. It failed to define closely the new rights of citizenship, however, with the result that African inhabitants of the colonies were not admitted to the full exercise of civil rights on the ground that they were not yet ready.
The draft constitution prepared by the First Constituent Assembly was rejected in a popular referendum, and the Second Constituent Assembly met in Paris in June 1946. Differences of opinion, evident in the first assembly, sharpened. A few deputies, from North Africa and Madagascar, demanded political independence. The deputies from French Black Africa (including the socialist Yacine Diallo from Guinea), supported by the French political Left, favored the establishment of a French Union, in which each member state would have political autonomy and there would be political equality of Frenchmen and the colonial people. White colonial interests and the French political Right and Center inclined toward a nominally federalist system, within which France would preserve its dominant position.
A compromise was finally reached, and the plan for the French Union was written into a new draft constitution. This was adopted by the assembly on September 28, 1946; all deputies from French Black Africa voted for it. It was then approved as the Constitution of the Fourth Republic in a referendum held throughout France and the overseas possessions on October 13, 1946.
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