The French Union — Early Years
The preamble of the new 1946 constitution stated that the French Union was founded on equality of rights and duties without prejudice with respect to race or religion and that it was France's role to lead the peoples of the French Union toward democratic self-government. Overseas possessions were divided into three categories: overseas departments, administratively organized on the pattern of departments of Metropolitan France and legally a part of it; overseas territories, including the former colonies of French West Africa, all considered part of the French Republic and as such entitled to send deputies to the French National Assembly; and associated territories and states, which were juridically members of the French Union but not a part of the French Republic.
The president of the French Republic was president ex officio of the French Union, the organs of which were a high council and an assembly. As before, Metropolitan France dominated; the French government exercised all legislative and executive powers, and the administration of the overseas possessions continued in a centralized pattern. Despite its federal trappings, it was in fact a unitary and, in many respects, a strongly assimilationist system. Laws, administration, citizenship, and the educational system were all French; and the basic premise of economic planning was full integration of the colonial economy with that of France.
The first steps toward political autonomy were taken, however, by giving some administrative and financial powers to the elective General Council in each territory, by granting limited suffrage, and by removing the ban on political association.
The General Council established for Guinea consisted initially of forty members elected by two separate colleges; sixteen members were chosen by citizens under French law and twenty-four by citizens under customary law. In 1952 the number was increased to fifty, eighteen elected by persons under French law and thirty-two by enfranchised persons under customary law. At this time the council was also redesignated the Territorial Assembly. The increase in representatives of the customary law electorate reduced somewhat the disproportion between representation for the two groups, but it still remained heavily weighted in favor of voters under French law, who constituted only a very small percentage of total voters.
The council (later assembly) had chiefly a regulatory and advisory function, as the French government possessed the exclusive right to legislate for the overseas territories. Despite its limited powers, however, the council played a significant role through its broad authority to make inquiries and the authority it had relative to land and property disposal, economic development, and matters concerned with education, health, and social welfare. It also proved to be a training ground for individuals who later became members of the Republic of Guinea government.
The deputies sent to the French National Assembly (there were three from Guinea by 1954) were elected directly by all enfranchised citizens in one college. Guinea's two members of the French Council of the Republic were chosen indirectly by the territory's General Council, whose members voted in two colleges, each electing one senator. Four representatives to the assembly of the French Union were elected indirectly by the General Council voting in one college, as were the territory's five deputies to the Grand Council of French West Africa.
No basic changes were made in the organization of local administration in the territory. The three existing communes—Conakry, Kankan, and Kindia—were advanced a step toward self-government by being granted elective councils, although their mayors continued to be appointed. In 1953 three other towns—Labé, Mamou, and Siguiri—were raised in status to communes with appointive councils.
During these years the reorganization of procedures for the administration of justice was carried out, based on the reform of April 1946. The French penal code was extended to all inhabitants of French West Africa, and the customary courts were deprived of their competence in criminal matters. Jurisdiction in minor transgressions was transferred from the customary courts of the first degree to appointed justices of the peace. A French court of the first instance in Conakry was given jurisdiction in all major crimes committed by citizens under both French and customary law. Customary courts were retained, however, for civil litigation involving citizens under customary law. In 1950 the Second Lamine-Guèye Law admitted Africans to certain higher posts in the civil service hitherto reserved for Europeans. Another change, in 1952, was the introduction of a new labor code patterned on the code in force in Metropolitan France.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
