French infrastructure-first policy in West Africa reflected ignorance of African conditions.

Evidence

Yet giving priority to railroads and hospitals did not translate into immediate gains for the French, and even less so for Africans. Roume’s insistence that material progress in West Africa depended first and foremost upon the provision of infrastructure, and secondarily upon improved hygiene, was also the product of a decided lack of familiarity with the African continent, which excessive pride in European science only reinforced. Just how much French power was enhanced by Dakar’s early communications and health care policies thus remains open to debate. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 245