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Why did few Africans under French rule in western Africa have French citizenship by 1937?

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Map of North America in 1763 using color coding to show colonial territories: the 13 American colonies in red along the Atlantic coast, other British territory in orange across much of present-day Canada, Spanish territory in purple covering most of the southern and western regions, Russian territory in green in the northwest, and large areas of unclaimed land in white. Major bodies of water such as the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay are labeled. — Western colonialism North America during the colonial period.

By 1937, the vast majority of Africans in French West Africa were colonial subjects rather than French citizens because the colonial administration maintained a rigid, autocratic system that restricted citizenship to a very small, urban minority.1

Historically, French citizenship was primarily recognized for inhabitants of specific coastal communities—namely Saint-Louis, Gorée, Dakar, and Rufisque—regardless of their ethnicity. Outside of these areas, the French colonial policy focused on training a limited indigenous staff and a "carefully chosen elite" to assist in administration, rather than extending political rights to the general population.12

Educational opportunities, which were a primary pathway to assimilation and status, were extremely limited; for instance, secondary education in the region was largely reserved for Europeans and the rare Africans who already held French status. It was not until the reforms following World War II and the 1946 constitution of the French Fourth Republic that France's African subjects were, in theory, granted full citizenship and broader representation.2345