French West Africa: A superstate?

Interesting thought:

After achieving independence from France, was it inevitable that French Africa would be divided up so readily? What if it remained united against western imperialism and functioned like the Russia of Africa?

If not West Africa, then how about Equatorial Africa? Splitting Gabon off from the Congo needn't occur.

What would it take for a huge state to be formed in Africa out of the declining French Empire? Food for thought :).
 
I dunno. French colonialism and Africans don't seem to have a record of success. There has actually been a lot of academic debate comparing French and British experiences in Africa and lots of theories why the former was more troubled than the latter.
 
Given OTL, many former French colonies in Africa have substantial problems in projecting central power to the whole country - a famous example being the republic of central africa. I suppose a huge West or Central African successor state would have even more problems in this case.

Whereas today western countries tend to support sovereignty and borders, this had not necessarily been the case in the aftermath of the decolonialization period. There's always the other superpower happy to step in to help some separatists...
 
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