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French Senegal to Independence
French Senegal to Independence
The French created the Grand Council of French West Africa to oversee the territories and only French citizens and citizens of the Four Communes in Senegal were able to become members. The colonized people were only considered to be French subjects, so they were prevented from gaining power however, in 1914 Blaise Diagne was able to prove he was born in one of the communes (Saint-Louis) and became the first black man elected to oversee the colonies. He then passed a law to allow citizens of Dakar, Saint-Louis, Rufisque, and Goree to vote in French elections and he sent many West Africans to aid France in WWI.
Senegal and French Sudan (modern Mali) joined to form the Mali Federation in 1959. The following year, France agreed to give them independence and on June 20, 1960, it officially gained independence from France. Senegal soon defected from the Mali Federation and became an independent state in August 1960. Senegal briefly joined the Gambia to form the nation of Senegambia in 1982 but they separated before the year ended. Issues with separatists in the southern Casamance region of Senegal have occurred since the 1980s, but a treaty was signed in 2004 that has been upheld to this day.
Senegal is often praised for its incorporation of all its ethnic and religious groups into a peaceful society.
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Senegal Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.