French West Africa

American  

noun

1. a former French federation in W Africa, including Dahomey (now Benin), French Guinea, French Sudan (now Mali), Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta (now Burkina Fasso).

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French West Africa British  

noun

1. a former group (1895–1958) of French Overseas Territories: consisted of Senegal, Mauritania, French Sudan, (now Mali), Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Niger, French Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and Dahomey (now Benin)

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Example Sentences

Aimé Henri Konan Bédié was born on May 5, 1934, in Dadiékro, about 150 miles north of coastal Abidjan in what was then called French West Africa.

From New York Times • Aug. 5, 2023

At 18, he enlisted in the colonial navy and was posted to Dakar, then the capital of French West Africa.

From New York Times • Mar. 31, 2022

The story goes that a cook named Penda Mbaye created the first thieboudienne in the 1800s in Saint-Louis, which was then the capital of the French colony of Senegal and later of French West Africa.

From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2021

Conspicuous among Premier Guy Mollet's new Cabinet members was a short, stocky, black-skinned man from French West Africa.

From Time Magazine Archive

It's in Senegal, in the area once known as French West Africa.

From Black Man's Burden by Reynolds, Mack