African Regroupment Party
Founded at Cotonou, July 1958, with the aim of demanding immediate independence from France.
The African Regroupment Party (French: Parti du Regroupement Africain, PRA) was a political party in the French African colonies.
Formation
The PRA came into being at a meeting in Paris on 26 March 1958, months before the French Community would replace the French Union. The main founding organizations were the African Convention and the African Socialist Movement. Other parties that assisted the Paris meeting included the African Bloc of Guinea, Social Party of the Masses (Gabon), Republican Union of Côte des Somalis (Djibouti), Dahomeyan Democratic Rally and the Voltaic Democratic Movement.
Initially there was hope that the African Democratic Rally (RDA) would join the project and Sékou Touré had signed the appeal on behalf of RDA calling for the formation of the party, but Félix Houphouët-Boigny intervened to keep his party outside. The African Independence Party (PAI) attended the Paris meeting, but declined to merge into PRA. PAI advocated full independence, a demand that PRA at that point was not willing to raise.
PRA held its constitutive congress in Cotonou from 25 to 27 July 1958. PRA strove to create an independent federation out of the French colonies in Africa.
1958 referendum and aftermath
During the referendum of 1958 PRA advocated full independence. This led to a collision course between PRA and its Senegalese section, the Senegalese Progressive Union (UPS).
“African Regroupment Party” enters the record as founded at Cotonou, July 1958, with the aim of demanding immediate independence from France. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what African, Regroupment and Party can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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