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CREATING MALI 29Keita and the Senegalese PDS under Leopold Sedar Senghor, advocated a WestAfrican federation of states, independent from France. The Ivorian PDCI-RDAunder Houphouët-Boigny opted for a West African federation associated to andin close collaboration with metropolitan France. In December 1958, the RDAorganised a Federal Council in Bamako. Delegations from Soudan Français,Senegal, Dahomey (Benin) and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) voted in favour ofthe independent federalist option. But Houphouët-Boigny had effectively lobbiedfor his own form of federation with France. Shortly after the Bamako conference,Dahomey and Upper Volta opted out to join Houphouët’s EntenteAfricaine, leaving Soudan Français and Senegal alone on the road to federalindependence.In February 1959, Soudan Français and Senegal formed the Mali federation,within the Communauté Française. Both republics would preserve their legalexistence as such, but a federal government and assembly were to be created inDakar, holding power over supra-territorial affairs. In many respects, the federationseemed a continuation of the federal structures of the AOF. The main goalof the federation was to achieve common independence form France. In April1960, the federation leaders reached an agreement with France over its existenceas an independent federation outside the Communauté Française. TheMali Federation declared its independence on June 20 that year, but it proved tobe short-lived. Conflicts arose over the political course of the Federation.Whereas the US-RDA under Modibo Keita adopted a rigid standpoint onMarxist Socialism as the basis of economic policy, Senghor’s African Socialismwas far more moderate. Where the US-RDA took a stance against Frenchforeign policy, notably on the Algerian war of liberation, Senghor’s PDS wasmore reconciliatory. Personal enmity between Keita and Senghor and a conflictover the presidency over the federation did the rest. The elections for the federalpresidency were to be held on 27 August 1960, but on 20 August 1960, twomonths after its formal independence from France, and the start of its existenceas an international sovereign federal state, Senegal left the Mali federation.Soudanese politicians in Dakar, including Modibo Keita, were arrested and puton the train to Bamako. In response, the Soudanese Government closed theborders and halted all transport to Senegal. On 22 September 1960, an extraordinarycongress of the US-RDA in Bamako declared the independence of theSoudanese Republic under the name Republic of Mali. Mali as we now know itcame into existence.Party politics in Soudan FrançaisIn his influential historical essay The Black Man’s Burden, written as an argumentagainst the creation of the nation-state in Africa, éminence grise Basil