French West Africa

French West Africa, federation of the French colonies of Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, Upper Volta, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, and French Togo, a part of Togoland mandated to France after the First World War. This vast area of 4.8 million sq. km. (1.85 million sq. mi.) was inhabited by about 16 million people, and, when war started, it sent some 65,000 African soldiers overseas, many becoming prisoners-of-war during the fighting which preceded the fall of France in June 1940.

Senegal's capital, Dakar, was the third largest port in the French Empire and the base of the Vichy-appointed high commissioner for Black Africa (French West and French Equatorial Africa), Pierre Boisson. He was, in effect, only the governor-general of French West Africa as French Equatorial Africa rallied to de Gaulle and the Free French. Boisson's policy of neutrality, especially after the abortive Dakar expedition in September 1940, was supported by the local population, and was strictly applied to both sides. However, in November 1942, after the North African campaign landings, he declared his support for Admiral Darlan, and his resignation was quickly accepted by the French Committee for National Liberation in June 1943. It replaced him with Pierre Cournarie, and Boisson was imprisoned; he died in captivity in 1947.