"Assimilation and its successor, Association, were euphemisms for the political and economic exploitation of Africans in French West Africa." Comment.

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"Assimilation and its successor, Association, were euphemisms for the political and economic exploitation of Africans" in French West Africa. Comment.

There were two sides to the acculturation of the African empire, assimilation and association. Assimilationists were those who sought to absorb Africans into European culture. France wanted to spread some manner of civility among the Africans: to do away with their 'tribal' practices, they were the only ones who thought to make the Africans an actual part of their civilization in terms of citizenship. France expected to assimilate the Africans, culturally, legally and politically so that in practice the assimilation policy in the colonies would encompass the extension of the French language, institutions, laws, and customs. Theoretically then, the African would become real Frenchmen.

Associationists on the other hand, were those who wished to preserve the relations between Africa and Europe without the culture of one permeating the other. The policy of association affirmed the superiority of the French in the colonies, but it entailed different institutions and systems of laws for the colonizer and the colonized. Under this policy, the Africans were allowed to preserve their own customs insofar as they were compatible with