{{Short description|Political party in French West Africa (1957–58)}}{{Infobox political party | name = African Socialist Movement | native_name = Mouvement Socialiste Africain | colorcode = Red | president = Lamine Guèye | general_secretary = Barry III | foundation = 13 January 1957 | ideology = Socialism | founder = Lamine Guèye<br>Djibo Bakary<br>Barry III | merged = PRA }}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
'''African Socialist Movement''' ({{langx|fr|link=no|Mouvement Socialiste Africain}}, '''MSA''') was a political party in French West Africa. The MSA was formed following a meeting of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO) federations of Cameroon, Chad, the French Congo (now the Republic of the Congo and Gabon), French Sudan (now Mali), Guinea, Niger, Oubangui-Chari (now the Central African Republic), and Senegal; the meeting was held in Conakry from 11 to 13 January 1957. At that meeting it was decided that the African federations would break with its French parent organisation and form the MSA.<ref name="zuc">Zuccarelli, François. ''La vie politique sénégalaise (1940–1988)''. Paris: CHEAM, 1988.</ref>
The first meeting of the leading committee of MSA met from 9 to 10 February in Dakar the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended the session. MSA opted for a federalist solution for French West Africa. On 26 March 1958, the MSA signed a declaration in Paris merging itself into the African Regroupment Party (PRA).<ref name="zuc"/>
==Leadership== At its founding, Lamine Guèye became the president of MSA, Barry III the general secretary and Djibo Bakary the deputy general secretary.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7gnvgKsw2LoC|title=Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946–1958|last=Schmidt|first=Elizabeth|date=1 January 2007|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=9780821417638|language=en}}</ref>
==Sections== The Senegalese section of MSA was the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS), and it was led by Lamine Guèye.<ref name="zuc"/> In Guinea, the Socialist Democracy of Guinea was the section of MSA.<ref>O'Toole, Thomas, and Janice E. Baker. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=kIiHwg3Y5u4C Historical Dictionary of Guinea]''. Historical dictionaries of Africa, no. 94. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2005. p. 62</ref> The Sudanese section of MSA was the Progressive Sudanese Party, while what became the Niger section retained the MSA name as the Mouvement Socialiste Africain-Sawaba.<ref>Fuglestad, Finn. ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/180451 Djibo Bakary, the French, and the Referendum of 1958 in Niger]'', published in ''The Journal of African History'', Vol. 14, No. 2 (1973), pp. 313–330</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}{{Authority control}} Category:African socialist political parties Category:Political parties in French West Africa Category:Socialist parties in Africa Category:1957 establishments in French West Africa Category:Political parties established in 1957 Category:Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Category:Pan-African political parties Category:Pan-Africanist political parties in Africa {{Africa-party-stub}} {{France-party-stub}}