Government and economy in the inter-war years

In 1933, at the height of the depression in West Africa, Sir Arnold Hodson, Governor of Sierra Leone, who like his colleagues in other West African colonies had had to take extraordinary measures to protect his colony’s economy, told his Legislative Council. An attempt at long-term planning was however made for French West Africa in 1921 by Albert Sarraut, who saw in the colonies the source of supply of the raw materials that would furnish French industry with the wherewithal for France’s post-war recovery. In Nigeria the Eastern Railway was extended north to meet with the Western system by 1926. The European export-import firms did nothing to improve the quality of the cash crops which were vital to their livelihood. This was left entirely to the agricultural departments of the colonial governments. In British West Africa the Colonial governments staunchly opposed the alienation of land to Europeans.

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