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The policy of association by the french

Answer Text:
The policy of association by the French
Under this system, the French colonial government was to respect the cultures of her colonial peoples and allow them to develop independently rather than force them to adopt French civilization and culture.
Unlike the assimilated Africans, subjects retained
their cultural practices e.g polygamy and Islam.
Why the French government replaced the policy of assimilation with that of association in 1945.
a) The French had realized that assimilation would lead to equality between them and the colonized people.
b) Assimilation was too expensive especially because West African colonies were not self-supporting yet.
c) The method clashed with the commercial interests. The French businesspersons and their friends in the colonial administration saw Africans as source of cheap labour.
d) The French had realized that not all the colonial people could be assimilated. Only the elite ones among them could.
e) They had realized that there was need to allow the colonies to enjoy the freedom of developing according to existing traditional political and social structure.