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Hi, Dean,

Always good to find someone collecting a "different" area.

It'd be good if you could show us some examples of interesting items from your collection

Hi Dean

You mention both «Independent French Africa» and Congo-Brazzaville. Is your collection only of the Congo or the whole of French Independent Africa?

Do you collect postaly used? I have some available from Congo and also from most French African countries, right up to very recent. So you can be sure they are official and postaly valid.

You can send want lists if you have them.

Regards

Memphre

Would a mod kindly correct the heading to aid future searches?

Edited - well spotted.

I would really like to see some examples as well.

I was just thinking about a reference catalogue for material of the ex-French colonies of Africa as I have also accumulated quite a collection of the independent French Africa as I find them equally attractive as the pre-independence French colonial issues, especially from the 1950s, 1960s & 1970s, and in some cases even stamps of the independent Africa from the 1980s could be quie attractive.

I have collected these stamps, miniature sheets, imperforate and deluxe proofs on the side over the last many years and at times when I think of doing away with this accumulation, I still feel reluctant about it, clearly indicating my interest levels on collecting this area.

I have a Yvert 2011 catalogue of French colonies, and I did have the SG 2006 France & Colonies catalogue, but both of these limit the listings only to the colonial period. I was wondering if there was a catalogue in one volume in the market that covers just the independent stamps of the ex-French colonies of Africa.

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

Hi

Unfortunately, there is no catalogue specifically for the independent French Africa nations. They are listed in world catalogues, but Scott, Yvert and SG list by alphabetical order so you need a complete world set to get from Algéria to Tunisia. Michel could be a good compromise as they publish their world catalogue by geographical areas; Africa is covered in 3 volumes, you would need all 3. The down side is that it is written in German but that is not much of a problem, as all stamps that have a different design are illustrated, a huge plus. The up side is that you get MUCH more and better information than with any of the competitors.

Recent used copies are not expensive on Delcampe or ebay, shipping could be more than purchase price.

The same Michel catalogues also cover the French colonial period in good detail. However, if you want a specialized approach to that period, forego Yvert and the mostly useless SG and go for Maury, it is in a class by itself.

Memphre

Ahoj everyone!

There don't seem to be many pictures on this thread, so here is a Central African Republic cover to Czechoslovakia to start the ball rolling.

It's nothing special, but it is colourful and commercially used.



Cheers,

Honza.

This one is a rich thematic cover, I cannot help but think of two of my collector-friends. One collects Halley's Comet material religiously and the other picks up any postal material that has an Elephant on it

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

I have these peculiar set of 8 Gabon Imperf stamps that for a long time I thought were just unofficial philatelic productions. I came to this conclusion based on the very thin toned paper on which these stamps were printed and the printing looked a bit cheap just like the local matchbox labels...

It took me sometime to spot this material listed in the Scott catalogue as an imperf sheet of 8 numbered C105 in the air post stamps section of Gabon, probably someone has cut these stamps out of such a sheet.

These were issued to commemorate Aviation Pioneer Claude Dornier in 1970.

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

This one is my personal favorite, the first Air Post stamps issued for the just independent former French colony of Madagascar.

In the first 2 years of their independence, the newly named Malagasy Republic issued stamps with the country inscription 'Republique Malgache'. From 1961 onwards, the country inscription was changed to 'Repoblika Malagasy'.

In fact, if you consider the airmail stamps of Madagascar/Malagasy alone, this is the only stamp set with the unique short-lived country inscription mentioned above. I find these very attractive stamps

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

If one observes the country inscriptions on the above Malgache stamps, you will notice a smaller inscription just below the country name which goes:

FAHAFAHANA - TANINDRAZANA - FANDROSOANA

Does anyone know what this means and represents?

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

Thanks for the suggestions, yes I agree that only Michel covers Africa separately in 3 volumes, but I was under the impression that even these Michel volumes on Africa would be a simplified version just like the SG and the Scott world catalogues. Or is the level of detail a bit more deeper in these I wonder.

Maury is by far the best bet for the specialized approach especially if one is collecting imperforate stamps as well as the other varieties of this area, and when it comes to independent French Africa, there is a lot of material outside the basic stamps purview that one could find attractive.

There's also a recent edition of SG on Africa alone. I guess this simplified catalogue covers the entire Africa stamps and miniature sheets, both pre and post colonial. It could be a good reference to assist one in building a collection on any of the African areas that one chooses to focus on if it's only basic stamps and sheets that one is interested in.... This also works out cheaper and perhaps the only one of its kind that covers everything related to Africa in one volume, and that means the entire French Africa too, both colonial as well as post-independence.

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

Ahoj safi!

According to Google they are the motto from the country's coat of arms.

One site says they mean Freedom Fatherland Progress

another says Freedom Fatherland Justice

I wonder if it is meant to evoke the motherland's Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

Also thanks for your appreciation of the Central African Republic cover with Haley's comet and the elephants. I had it up on ebay and no one was interested.

Cheers,

Honza

thanks for providing that information/translation

I have passed on this link to my friend who collects on the Elephant theme, he is half the year on sea and I'm not sure what's his status presently - sea or land

I have this French Africa omnibus set commemorating the 1960 Rome Olympics where the famous 500fr 'Anhinga' snakebirds stamp of French Equatorial Africa was used as the common design, surcharged and overprinted in red with the country inscriptions of the 4 freshly independent nations of the former A.E.F. Federation - Gabon, Chad, Central Africa and Congo - along with the Olympic Rings overprint.

This French Africa omnibus was issued in the same month when the 4 autonomous republics within the French Community became fully independent, in August 1960.



I wonder why Cameroun was left out of this omnibus although it was also part of the AEF Federation for quite a while, isn't it?

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

Hi Safi, I found the following information on the Malagasy national motto which has changed several times since independence:

Fahafahana Tanindrazana Fandrosoana (Liberty, Fatherland, Progress) from 1959 to 1975

Tanindrazana Tolompiavotana Fahafahana (Fatherland, Revolution, Liberty) from 1975 to1993

Tanindrazana Fahafahana Fahamarinana (Fatherland, Liberty, Justice) from 1993 to 1995

Tanindrazana, Fahafahana, Fandrosoana (Fatherland, Liberty, Progress) from 1995.

Fitiavana, Tanindrazana, Fandrosoana (Love, Fatherland, Progress) is the current version.

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Nigel

I Kind of like what they have finally settled for in the end... Fiti-avana (I guess that's the way to pronounce it) sounds good, Love is a good place to begin with

Thanks, it always surprises me what all one could learn about otherwise unnoticeable things about far-off distant places and the way of life of its people, all just by studying a single stamp!

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

I was trying to identify and classify with the help of a present-day map of the African continent all those countries as they exist today that were ex-French colonies. My list came to 20 independent nations of the former French Africa.

French West Africa (AOF Federation):

Mauritania
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Guinea
Burkina Faso
Côte d'Ivoire
Benin
Togo

French Equatorial Africa:

Chad
Central African Republic
Congo
Gabon
Cameroon

North Africa:

Algeria
Morocco
Tunisia

Other Countries:

Djibouti
Madagascar
Comoros

I understand that both Togo and Cameroon were never a colonial part of their respective federations but Mandate territories as both were basically German colonies seized from them by the French during World Wars.

Am I missing any independent (French Africa) country in my list here?

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

This 1962 Malaria Eradication set from Guinea as well as a few other overprinted stamps and sets of Guinea from the 1960s had overprint varieties - they were overprinted in red as well as orange.

Although not uncommon, they are very attractive to collect together in full sets.

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

I just heard back from Yvert et Tellier, they are coming out with a catalogue for independent French Africa in June this year.

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

Michel's African volumes are not as detailed as those for European countries. But they are way more detailed than Scott, and with the exception of some commonwealth countries they beat SG too.

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See pics of my latest stamp findings at Stamp Collecting Blog.