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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Economic and political co-operation in West Africa
Author:Abraham, A.ISNI
Year:1990
Periodical:Africana Research Bulletin
Volume:17
Issue:1
Pages:29-66
Language:English
Geographic term:West Africa
Subjects:foreign policy
international economic relations
Abstract:Attempts at forming unions for various reasons are not new in West Africa. During the colonial period the French administered the whole of French West Africa (AOF), comprising eight countries, as a single administrative unit. Common services were run, the most important being customs and a single currency, the CFA franc. The British, on the other hand, created only functional organizations or common services, such as the West African Currency Board, which issued a single common currency for British West Africa. In the nationalist flurry for independence during the post-World War II period, most of these organizations were swept away. Some experiments were made with political unions, such as the Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union and the Mali Federation. But the bipolarity of independent African States in the Monrovia and Casablanca blocs - moderate and radical - prevented any greater degree of African cooperation until African leaders sank their differences at Addis Ababa in 1963 and formed the OAU. From this point on emphasis shifted from attempts to organize political federations or unions to efforts to achieve functional cooperation or integration. Between 1963 and 1973, when the Mano River Union was formed, no less than a dozen regional or subregional organizations for social, economic, technical and cultural cooperation were created in West Africa. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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