Black African Students Federation in France

The Black African Students Federation in France (, abbreviated FEANF) was an organization of African students in France. FEANF was influenced by the French Communist Party, and saw the struggle against French colonialism in Africa as part of a wider struggle against Western imperialism. FEANF played an important role for the formation of communist organizations in Francophone Africa. In addition, FEANF largely contributed to creating a centralized voice that united all African student groups in France, while their actions highlighted the greater disparities within the French colonial system. Founding FEANF was founded in 1950, when a preliminary congress was held in April 1950 in Lyon, followed by a meeting in Bordeaux in December 1950. The Bordeaux meeting was attended by cells of African students from Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier and Bordeaux. The Paris group, led by Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow and Louis Atayi, dominated the debates. The Bordeaux meeting adopted the FEANF statues, which called for the unification of all African student associations in France. Among its first goals was to “defend the material and moral interests of the students.” The statues also stated that FEANF was independent of any political party. The Lyon cell soon affiliated itself to the organization soon afterwards. First and Second Congresses The first federal congress of FEANF was held March 21–22, 1951 in Paris. The congress elected an Executive Committee, which included Solange Faladé (medical student from Dahomey) as President, Amadou-Mahtar M'bow (from Senegal) as General Secretary, N'ki Traoré (from Guinea, also the Secretary of the RDA Students Association) as Joint General Secretary and Abdou Moumouni (from Niger, also the editor of Les étudiants anti-colonialistes) as Treasurer. By the end of 1951 FEANF had around 1,000 members. Politically, the first FEANF Executive Committee was rapidly seen as very 'moderate'. Its President tried to mobilize a separate structure, GAREP, but failed to gather any sizeable number of followers from the founding core of FEANF. Compared to FEANF, GAREP was reluctant to have contacts with pro-Soviet structures.