I would add my two cents into this discussion (response by Subsaharska here). The economic backwardness of a large number of countries of the so called Francophone Africa can be in my humble opinion hardly explained by the Protestant ethic that some sociologists like the German Max Weber put forward to justify the development of capitalism in the generally Protestant anglo-saxon world. The period of colonization was too short (less than a century generally) to leave such a profound impact. When comparing African countries, whether English or French speaking, what catches the eye is the impact of good governance. Where it is observed, the countries get off better. For example, English speaking Ghana experienced a long period of instability after the fall of Nkrumah (1966) with a state held hostage by incompetent, corrupt and predatory officers. This country was therefore much less developed than for example its French speaking neighbour Côte d'Ivoire. Thanks to the actions of Jerry Rawlings who put out of harm the military cliques, Ghana has found the path of democracy and good governance and is developing better than the neighbour Côte d’Ivoire who fell into civil war due to the incapcity of the successors of the late Felix Houphouet Boigny. Note that the English-speaking countries ruled by absolute despots such as Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the Gambia of Yayah Jammeh are on the decline in development. I use the term absolute despot because Africa has also known enlightened despots like the already mentioned Houphouet Boigny and Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia whose results were rather positive. If we compare the francophone countries among themselves, we note that those which are better managed like Mali, Burkina Faso are getting off better than those which are poorly managed like Guinea even if the latter enjoy a natural environment more favorable: Guinea has more mineral resources than Mali, a more fertile land where almost everything grows and a greater pluviometry but is less advanced than that sister country. So the problem of good management, good governance remains pervasive.

There are other flaws in French-speaking countries which are in my opinion a legacy of colonization:

1) The excessive centralization of power and administration: it is inappropriate to our pluralistic societies because it comes from a society like that of France where the nation-state has managed to erase much of the ethnic and regional identities; there is therefore the need to reflect on an administrative and constitutional reshaping that takes more account of the sociological realities.

2) France has introduced in its colonies the system of direct rule while the British, out of pragmatism, preferred indirect rule. That system has erased all the traditional structures and hierarchies and thus facilitated the emergence of despotic and predatory power.

3) The umbilical cord between the former motherland and its colonies was not cut: generally, France exerts a too great political, economic and cultural influence which paralyzes her former colonies. The Heads of State of these formally independent countries are linked to France by defense agreements that keep French troops on their territories, they place willingly their stash in France, accumulating there villas and luxury coaches and so on and French companies control large sectors of the economy. The French troops backup in return the power. Thus, Mobutu would have been ousted from power by the Katangan rebels in 1978 had not been the support of France who had overtaken from the Belgian masters. Similarly, the Togolese people rose up in 2005 against the corrupt Eyadema dynasty which is ruling the country for over 40 years but suffered a bloody repression by the Togolese army which is trained and armed by France. This does not exonerate of course the Heads of State and the local elites who could have chosen another way but we must recognize that the colonial heritage did not make things easy.

Before closing, I wish to call on Africans to define themselves less in terms of "Francophone" or "Anglophone" and remember that there are also millions of Africans lingalophones, haussaphones, fulophones, mandinguophones, swahiliphones etc.