The Colonial Toponymic Model in the Capital Cities of French West Africa

Abstract

Old urban areas or centres, developed during the colonial period in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, are characterised by specific toponymy, largely exogenous, as a considerable part is inherited from the colonial period. The naming of roads and streets in the colonial urban environment was carried out by an official act or more often by a decree from the colonial Governor during a management-board meeting and published in the Journal Officiel of the territory. A systematic analysis of the minutes of the period, which we undertook for each territory of French West Africa (AOF), and also the analysis of the minutes of appropriate sessions of management boards – enable us to reconstitute the toponymic history of the capital cities of the AOF. This ‘top-down’ study of place-naming policy is intended to analyse the situation towards the end of the colonial period, that is, the period of decolonisation when the countries became independent, and had the choice to accept or reject these marks of forced integration into an empire.