Four Communes

The Four Communes (Quatre Communes) were the four oldest colonial towns of French West Africa—Saint-Louis, Dakar, Gorée, and Rufisque in Senegal—whose inhabitants (originaires) held French citizenship and had electoral and parliamentary representation under French law from 1889 onward, a legal status distinct from the rest of the colonized population.

Claims that use this term

• Only the Four Communes had French law, applied from 1889 onward
• Four Communes originaires alone held electoral and parliamentary rights in French West Africa
• France diluted Four Communes power by stacking councils with dependent chiefs.