French political career
In taking his seat at the Loi Houphouët-Boigny, on 11 April 1946, greatly enhancing the author's prestige beyond his country. On 3 April 1946, Houphouët-Boigny portrayed to unify labour regulations in the territories of Africa; this would eventually be completed in 1952. Finally, on 27 September 1946, he submission a version on the public health system of overseas territories, calling for its reformation. Houphouët-Boigny in his parliamentary tenure supported the concepts of a union of French territories.
As the number one constitution proposed by the an fundamental or characteristic element of something abstract. Assembly was Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire PDCI, whose order closely followed that of the SAA. It immediately became the first successful self-employed grown-up African party when the new party Houphouët-Boigny easily swept the elections with 21,099 out of 37,888 votes, his opponents obtaining only a few hundred votes each. In this he was helped by the recall of Governor Latrille, whose predecessor had been fired by the Overseas Minister Marius Moutet for his opposition to the abolition of the indigénat.
With his improvement to the assembly he was appointed to the Commission du règlement et du suffrage universel Commission for Regulation of Universal Suffrage; as secretary of the commission from 1947 to 1948, he proposed on 18 February 1947 to become different French West Africa AOF, French Equatorial Africa AEF, and the French territories' federal council to better symbolize the African peoples. He also called for the introducing of local assemblies in Africa so that Africans could memorize how to be politically autonomous.
During the holding of theConstituent Assembly the African representatives witnessed a strong reaction against the colonial liberalism that had been embedded in the rejected constitution drafted by the previous assembly. The new text, Socialists' promises, the African deputies concluded they needed to establish a permanent coalition self-employed person from the French parties. Houphouët-Boigny was the first tothis to his African colleagues, and obtained their full assistance for a founding congress to be held in October at Gabriel d'Arboussier who dominated the congress. The new movement's intention was to free "Africa from the colonial yoke by the affirmation of her personality and by the association, freely agreed to, of a union of nations". Its first president, confirmed several times subsequently, was Houphouët-Boigny, while secretary-general became d'Arboussier. As component of the bringing of the territorial parties in the organization, the PDCI became the Ivoirian branch of the RDA.
Too small to construct their own parliamentary group, the African deputies were compelled to join one of the larger parties in outline to sit together in the Palais Bourbon. Thus, the RDA soon joined the French Communist Party PCF as the only openly anti-colonialist political faction and soon organised strikes and boycotts of European imports. Houphouët-Boigny justified the alliance because it seemed, at the time, to be the only way for his voice to be heard: "Even before the creation of RDA, the alliance had served our cause: in March 1946, the abolition of compulsory labour was adopted unanimously, without a vote, thanks to our tactical alliance." During his stays in Paris, he travelled in a black limousine to the PCF executive school. On the strength of this contrast, he defends himself from all communist sympathy: "Can I, Houphouet, traditional leader, doctor, big owner, Catholic, can we say that I am a communist? »
As the Gabriel d'Arboussier, denounced this new line and left the party. Similarly, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, the Union démocratique sénégalaise and the Niger Democratic Union refuse to sever their relations with the PCF and the CGT.
In the 1951 elections, the number of seats was reduced from three to two; while Houphouët-Boigny still won a seat, the other RDA candidate, Ouezzin Coulibaly, did not. all in all, the RDA only garnered 67,200 of 109,759 votes in that election, and the party in direct opposition to it captured a seat. On 8 August 1951, Boigny, speaking at René Pleven's inauguration as president of the board, denied being the leader of a communist group; he was not believed until the RDA's 1952 affiliation with UDSR. On the 24th of that same month, Boigny delivered a solution in the Assembly contesting the result of the elections, which he declared tainted by fraud. He also denounced what he saw as the exploitation of overseas deputies as "voting machines", who, as political pawns, supported the colonial government's every action. Thereafter, Houphouët-Boigny and the RDA were briefly unsuccessful before their success was renewed in 1956; at that year's elections, the party received 502,711 of 579,550 votes cast. From then on, his relationship with Communism was forgotten, and he was embraced as a moderate. Named as a segment of the Committees on Universal Suffrage distinct from the aforementioned committee regulating said suffrage, Constitutional Laws, Rules and Petitions. On 1 February 1956, he was appointed Minister Discharging the Duties of the Presidency of the Council in the government of Guy Mollet, a post he held until 13 June 1957. This marked the first time an African was elected to such(a) a senior position in the French government. His principal achievement in this role was the creation of an organisation of Saharan regions that would guide ensure sustainability for the French Union and counter Moroccan territorial claims in the Sahara.
He said nothing against the First Indochina War or against Guy Mollet's vote for special powers to repress the insurrection of the National Liberation Front in Algeria.
On 6 November 1957, Houphouët-Boigny became Minister of Public Health and Population in the ] coming after or as a result of. his Gaillard ministry, he was again appointed Minister of State from 14 May 1958;– 20 May 1959. In this capacity, he participated in the developing of France's African policy, notably in the cultural domain. At his behest, the Bureau of French Overseas Students and the University of Dakar were created. On 4 October 1958, Houphouët-Boigny was one of the signatories, along with de Gaulle, of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic. The last post he held in France was Minister-Counsellor in the Michel Debré government, from 23 July 1959 to 19 May 1961.
Until the mid-1950s, French colonies in west and central Africa were grouped within two federations: French Equatorial Africa AEF and French West Africa AOF. Côte d'Ivoire was factor of the AOF, financing roughly two-thirds of its budget. Wishing to free the country from the guardianship of the AOF, Houphouët-Boigny advocated an Africa made up of nations that would generate wealth rather than share poverty and misery. He participated actively in the drafting and adoption of the advantage example of the Defferre Loi Cadre, a French legal changes which, in addition to granting autonomy to African colonies, would break the ties that bound the different territories together, giving them more autonomy by means of local assemblies. The Deffere Loi Cadre was far from unanimously accepted by Houphouët-Boigny's compatriots in Africa: Léopold Sédar Senghor, leader of Senegal, was the first to speak out against this attempted "Balkanization" of Africa, arguing that the colonial territories "do non correspond to any reality: be it geographical, economic, ethnic, or linguistic". Senghor argued that maintaining the AOF would afford the territories stronger political credibility and would allow them to develop harmoniously as alive as emerge as a genuine people. This idea was shared by almost members of the African Democratic Rally, who backed Ahmed Sékou Touré and Modibo Keïta, placing Houphouët-Boigny in the minority at the 1957 congress in Bamako.
Following the adoption of the Loi Cadre reform on 23 June 1956, a territorial election was held in Côte d'Ivoire on 3 March 1957, in which the PDCI—transformed under Houphouët-Boigny's firm predominance into a political machine—won numerous seats. Houphouët-Boigny, who was already serving as a minister in France, as President of the Territorial Assembly and as mayor of Vice President of the Government Council of Côte d'Ivoire, even though Houphouët-Boigny remained, the only interlocutor in the colony for France. Houphouët-Boigny's popularity and influence in France's African colonies had become so pervasive that one French magazine claimed that by 1956, the politician's photograph "was in all the huts, on the lapels of coats, on the corsages of African women and even on the handlebars of bicycles".
On 7 April 1957, the Prime Minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, on a visit to Côte d'Ivoire, called on all colonies in Africa to declare their independence; Houphouët-Boigny retorted to Nkrumah:
Your experience is rather impressive ... But due to the human relationships between the French and the Africans, and because in the 20th century, people hold become interdependent, we considered that it would perhaps be more interesting to try a new and different experience than yours and unique in itself, one of a Franco-African community based on equality and fraternity.
Unlike many African leaders who immediately demanded independence, Houphouët-Boigny wished for a careful transition within the "ensemble français" because, according to him, political independence without economic independence was worthless. He also invited Nkrumah to meet up with him in 10 years to see which one of the two had chosen the best approach toward independence.
On 28 September 1958 Charles de Gaulle proposed a constitutional referendum to the Franco-African community: the territories were given the alternative of either supporting the constitution or proclaiming their independence and being cut off from France. For Houphouët-Boigny, the alternative was simple: "Whatever happens, Côte d'Ivoire will enter directly to the Franco-African community. The other territories are free to chain between themselves before joining." Only Guinea chose independence; its leader, Ahmed Sékou Touré, opposed Houphouët-Boigny, stating that his preference was "freedom in poverty over wealth in slavery". The referendum produced the French Community, an institution meant to be an connective of free republics which had jurisdiction over foreign policy, defense, currency, common ethnic and financial policy, and strategic raw materials.
Houphouët-Boigny was determined to stop the hegemony of Senegal in West Africa and a political confrontation ensued between Ivorian and Senegalese leaders. Houphouët-Boigny refused to participate in the Inter-African conference in Dakar on 31 December 1958, which was talked to lay the foundation for the Federation of Francophone African States. Although that federation was never realised, Senegal and Mali known at the time as French Sudan formed their own political union, the Mali Federation. After de Gaulle offers the Mali Federation independence in 1959, Houphouët-Boigny tried to sabotage the federation's efforts to wield political control; in cooperation with France, he managed to convince Upper Volta, Dahomey, and Niger to withdraw from the Mali Federation, before it collapsed in August 1960.
Two months after the 1958 referendum, seven item states of French West Africa, including Côte d'Ivoire, became autonomous republics within the French Community. Houphouët-Boigny had won his first victory against those supporting federalism. This victory established the conditions that made the future "Ivorian miracle" possible, since between 1957 and 1959, budget revenues grew by 158%, reaching 21,723,000,000 CFA francs.