The heart of the system, however, remained unchanged: in sub-Saharan Africa, apart from Mauritania and Madagascar, no state dared to ask for greater monetary independence. Thus, France's sphere of influence remained practically unchanged. At the end of 1973, when all the 'cooperation agreements' had already been revised or were under revision, a summit of heads of state of French-speaking Africa took place in Paris, officially on the initiative of the Nigerien president Hamani Diori and the Ivorian president Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Since then this formula would be repeated every year, taking the name of 'France-Africa summit'. Hamani Diori did not participate in the following editions of this 'gathering': his government was overthrown in April 1974 by General Seyni Kountché, three days before an important Franco-Nigerien meeting scheduled to renegotiate the price of the Nigerien uranium purchased by France. Diori understandably wanted to raise the price, against the wishes of Paris. The detachment of the French army in Niamey did not intervene during the coup.

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 184