MAP: L’Afrique française (French Africa)

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Many of the independent nations of West Africa once were possessions of France (though several changed hands among colonial powers, including Britain and Germany).

In the former British colonies, missionaries sought to bring “Christianity, commerce and civilization” — the motto of explorer David Livingstone — to the continent, while France sent soldiers and merchants, said George Akpabli, director of the Benin Bible Training Center. Today, most of the continent’s Churches of Christ exist in English-speaking nations. The center has graduates working to plant churches and win souls in the French-speaking nations of Benin, Togo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Guinea, Akpabli said.

French West Africa: Nations in blue are former colonies of France.

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